Wed May 4 01:16:11 2005

At 8 o'clock PM, Day of the Moon, 14th of the Month of the Old Forces
on the Theran calendar Vershelt perished, never to return.

Everyone's said their piece, and it's not going anywhere.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Well, good char, just figured I'd let you know, Vershelt and Acaga both made the pillar, see you in the fields

Acaga

Ah, that's very cool. Thank you for telling me, now I'll have to roll something up just to go inside and see how it looks, unless you want to cut and paste it here... (hint hint) And thanks to Kastellyn and Ordasen of course.

By the way, who did you play that interacted with Vershelt? Acaga was gone way before Vershelt got into battle as I remember. No?

V-man

you'll have to wait and see

I was fortunate enough to interact with you as two sepperate villagers. As Glaurthran, your interview was probably the most entertaining one I've ever had for giving my reccomendation for the village. Hearing "Yah, wingman ok" brightened my day every time.

My ill-fated attempt at a "troll" with Bhigwyte let me see you from a younger perspective, and it was quite easy to look up to you.

Great job all around, I think you played exactly what a berserker should be.

Treebeard

Thank you, that is kind of you. I liked Glaurthran a lot, both with Yuyuya and Vershelt, and with Vershelt you were a good example for me when I subsequently also became a Veteran. You were always game for both going out and hunting as well as helping younger villagers, and I tried to emulate that. I think I helped every single villager level in the 40s at one point or another. Watching you unleash that warcry (you had a fun one by the way) and then pummel the skeletons was always fun.

Bhigwyte was obviously less of an impact but what I saw was all good. Go back and make another and stick with him this time!

Thanks again and good luck to you as well.

What a blast. What a great, great ride. This character was so much fun, from start to finish. Even when things were ####ty they were still fun. And as we are discussing a game, which by definition has as its purpose fun for the player, I can think of no higher praise. Thank you to all the players and imms who in one way or the other participated in the wacky funness that was Vershelt. While there was certainly that 5 or 10 percent of unfunness (some of which I have mentioned in ooc forums and which I still stand by to a large extent), it was pretty much one big bundle of goodness, ic. (I will say that it is very annoying to die to bugs (I think I died five bug deaths, including the last one, blast!). Oh, and Maarm, thanks for the fun goodbye, but fixing my pfile problem by killing me yourself gave me 5 or 6 more pkdeaths! You killed my ratio!! ) But seriously folks, a hearty thank you, whether you were friend or foe, mortal or immortal, it all was part of a great time, for me at least.

As to the character:

Vershelt was born a poor black child...

Oh wait, wrong movie.

Right, Vershelt was born so I could see about doing a bunch of things I’d never done before and wanted to see first-hand. Never hero’d a cloud giant before. Wanted to try out the hand to hand spec. Wanted to try the Whispers legacy. Wanted to see what could be achieved with absolutely no role written - but consistent rp, meaning how much longer will behavior take to get noticed/rewarded in the absence of a written role, if at all. Wanted to get a tattoo I’d never had before (though which tattoo changed as time went on). Wanted to make a berserker who really was a berserker without ever having to go through the uninduct-learn lesson-reinduct process. Wanted to make a pillar-worthy rager. Wanted to be deathful. Wanted to be loved by my friends and allies and hated and feared by my enemies.

Other than the pillar part which is yet to be determined of course, I satisfied my desires. Thank you very much, Kastellyn, for the props and con and tattoo* and title. Only wish we actually had more time to interact rather than just the “Yeah, I did that, good job” wizi stuff. I know it’s just bad timing with life and no blame at all, just being wistful. And thank you both Kastellyn and Ordasen for the Veteran and then Drillmaster spot, and especially for the induct power, which let me play for at least an extra month. I may be wrong, but I suspect you created the new drillmaster job description just as an excuse to give me the induct power so I could have leader con and aging. Which was all I wanted. The only reason I wanted to be commander, when you asked me in the rites, was that I wanted the extra con and time. Getting that, and not having to be the induct-guy, was just perfect for me. 2nd in command is fine with me. So thank you again.

As to Vershelt’s actual character and behavior, I’ll talk a little about that. Having played a slew of the smart, crafty, manipulative, genius, blah blah blah characters, I wanted to try my hand at playing someone, well, someone less than brilliant. Though the catch of course was that Vershelt thought he was a damn rocket scientist. Better, smarter, faster, stronger and nicer to his mother than anyone else. Even if you killed him, he was better than you, would get you back ten times, in ten minutes, and show you just how much smarter and deathful he was than you. Hence calling everyone dumb or weak or coward or whatever. It also had the side benefit of getting some people angry enough to come fight which was, after a while, a problem. Few would fight him. Which was probably smart for most people, but still, kinda boring for me.

Now, to be honest, a lot of people really were dumb. People would accuse me of all sorts of crap. For example, not only did I get tells saying “You’re a bad villager, picking a legacy that helps against warriors and not magi, you wouldn’t have won without the Greeting legacy!” but I actually got a note from someone saying “You have Greeting, can you tell me about it?” As can plainly be seen on the pbf, I didn’t have the Greeting legacy. Indeed, I can’t tell you how many people got away convulsing from a bash that wasn’t so effective. Another perfect example is a conjurer who shall remain nameless recently sent me tells, out of the blue, asking why a particular necromancer was still alive. Why hadn’t I killed him already? He’d been logged on for a while, why hasn’t Vershelt killed him? Vershelt must be afraid of him and avoiding him. Blah blah blah. Out of the blue. Obviously all that was a lie, I’d actually just fought that necromancer on the eastern road, and obviously wasn’t afraid to fight anyone. The conjurer of course declined to ever show up or say where he was to fight. You get the point. There are literally scores of other examples and other things I could describe, but suffice it to say a lot of people tried to talk a lot of trash to V-man and were just being idiots in a real way, not a fake ic way.

As to Vershelt’s talking, when I rolled him up and was in the early levels (pre-10) I read the cloud giant helpfiles. The language one talks about how they don’t say a bunch of stuff, are very short sentence types, and have been away from the rest of civilization. I took that to heart. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but my inability to use people’s names did not extend to other cloud giants. For me, it was a language barrier. Vershelt wasn’t *that* dumb, he was perfectly smart for a cloud giant of 16 intelligence. But he didn’t speak all the languages of all the races, and the presumption is that all of your names are from your racial or homeland tongues, which Vershelt neither knew or could pronounce. Most of his speech developed from that point. He would love to express himself in long flowing terms (well, not really) but he couldn’t because he didn’t speak your tongue or the common tongue that well. He did get marginally better over time, but not much.

Anyway, that’s the skinny on Vershelt. Goodbyes now. You play a character for five months and almost 600 hours, you’re going to meet a lot of people. Forgive me for taking the easy way out, but.... please post and I will respond. I would very much love to hear from anyone who wants to voice their opinion (good or bad, I can take it) but I just can’t bring myself to try and remember the dozens who impacted Vershelt’s life.

With just a few exceptions:

Gerylanst: we became villagers about the same time. You got Veteran way before me though, and at first I was somewhat annoyed because I never saw you and didn’t get why you were being moved along so much faster. But all that changed about halfway through when we had some coincidental log ins together, and then of course the rites. I’ll sum up how I feel about your character in two words: you rock. I think you do everything right. And that’s not easy, not easy at all. Damn good leader, damn good bard, damn good friend. I got nothin’ but love for ya, pal. Sorry we couldn’t get the horn for you one last time, but I’m sure you’ll find another damage-bitch to swing an axe or sword or mace for you soon enough. Thanks for letting me tag along when you were around. Being a berserker is actually a pretty lonely way play, due to the parity restrictions, and so the times I could spend grouped with someone were precious. You were the best of the bunch for that.

Akscereh: you were my favorite scion. You would fight, you would stick around, you would use enough preps to make it a good fight that I was equally able to win or lose, but not enough to make it just futile for me. I think in the end I got you more than you got me, but at some point that stopped mattering (at least for me) and I was just giddy to be assured of a few fights anytime I saw you on. Thanks for the good times.

Sdradiga: you were my favorite imperial. In my opinion a cloud giant battle rager’s worst match-up is an empire bard who has a clue. Pretty much nothing I can do, no way to defend or prepare against you. And for all those people who would send me tells mocking me for not getting that little thing in hamsah to prep for resist_mental... it’s magic you dolts. I searched for something to give me resist mental that wasn’t magic and never found one, so I was pretty much up ####’s creek. The blurry vision song worked pretty much every time on the first try, and from then on it was just a beat down. Even when I could get the jump on you, you were reduced so I couldn’t bash, and would just flee, return, and bam! I’m toast. I was SO annoyed that you got away at convulsing in galadon that time, I was sure I had you. Very, very frustrating for me, but obviously well played by you.

Kjelror/Gnarruk/Xthurak: Vershelt took his job as drillmaster very seriously. I the player know what it’s like to get uninducted and it’s not fun, but you guys really left me no choice. Despite what frustration you may have had, each of you pretty much violated either direct orders from the commander, or rules on the plaque or tablet. I’m sorry it worked out as it did, but I don’t think I had much choice. Vershelt was orderly, not chaotic (WANTED flags are not signs of being chaotic. Spire laws are not important. Obeying the chain of command, being predictable in behavior, following repetitive patterns and beliefs, these are signs of being orderly, and Vershelt the character took all of those very seriously) and so when he saw you each doing as you did he was compelled to act.

Iborenn: Thanks for inducting me. Thanks for the support as time went on and my star rose as yours semi-retired. You were cool, calm, calculating and efficient. I didn’t much like you with Yuyuya, but I liked you very much with Vershelt. Now you have to just die already!

Anyway that’s it for now. I have a lot of things to say about cloud giant villagers, sword and hand specs, berserkers, blah blah blah, and will discuss them here if they get raised by people’s posts. But for now I’ll wait and maybe talk about those things on the gameplay board.

Thanks again to all.

Mark (otherwise known as the infernal Graatch. Man I gotta ditch that name.)

*I know it's a very rare tattoo, Kasty, but oh my god you need to tone down the invokable power, it was just waaaay overpowered, even in my eyes.

Farewell Drillmaster..a pity I didn't get a chance to interact more with you..longest time spent was just boring you with the song lulluby. Enjoyed whatever little interaction we had though, and you were a very impressive warrior, spoken from two different points of view. Definitely a huge Village loss.

Thanks, I thought you were doing well and also was disappointed not to have more than a cursory set of interactions. Keep it up though, I'm sure you'll make a real impact.

Damn Hells! that fight in rites! damn again. Resist down in a wrong moment, right before your last pummel - heh, but it was one of my best and interesting fights. Good rager, and yes, more good as Drillmaster.

It was always weird to watch you. I'd just played Yuyuya, a wood-elf spear/dagger rager, so I knew pretty much exactly what you were going through, what could or could not be done, etc. Sometimes I winced and sometimes I was happily surprised.

And yeah, that fight in the rites was great, down to the wire. Once they said berserkers couldn't thirst, but you all could use your village powers I knew it would be very tough fights, and they were. You did it as good as it could be done I think, and I just got lucky with that pummel. Too bad you deleted but I understand. Thanks for helping make this a fun character for me and good luck with your next.

I saw a fair bit of this character's life, and there wasn't #### he was afraid to try and fight.

That's about the highest compliment I can give a berserker.

"...to try and fight".... and die! Heh. Thanks though, there's nothing quite like a Nepenthe stamp of approval in cf. Gold standard.

I hope you enjoyed watching some of me. I imagine it wasn't all that much fun regularly, just a lot of running around trying to find people to fight, interspersed with short bits of extreme fun.

Anyway, thanks again.

Heh, no really though, I put you up there with Iramath on people I didnt want to fight cause I couldnt do much to them, good show. And man I hated our "your dumb, no your dumb" talks, because what I said, you would never really acknowledge and would always have to have the last word. Good show

NbM

You know, the one thing that bothered me about you was that you constantly refered to me in the female, rather than male. Why was that? It was why I always said you were both dumb and blind, as though you couldn't see this big 14 foot man you were fighting but somehow saw a woman. Was it a deliberate attempt to insult or something? Just very curious.

Like I said before, great times. Thanks again.

Aks saw you as a truly great thing, a truly powerful fighter (though he hated you more than anything) And in his mind all truly great, beautiful, and powerful things could only be female. Because after all his goddess, the most beautiful and powerful was a female. So despite all evidence against the fact, you had to be female. Wench was because he hated you, so it was a bit of respect and bit of disrespect at the same time. He was going insane after all

NbM

Although, it's not really THAT old, but nearly 600 hours is a lot for a rager in my opinion. Anyway, I remember seeing you with Karashin and I wasn't too sure of the vibs I was recieving. But then I had Tuggluk, and I enjoyed the time we spent together. Your talk was sometimes hard to understand but after I got the hang of it, it wasn't so hard. You were definetely one good berserker and like Nep said, you weren't afraid of anything, as it should be. I have to admit the hammering on Nabb kinda made me frown, but that's just forum crap anyway, it has nothing to do with the great character that Vershelt was. As most probably imagine, I do hit myself consistently for getting rid of Tuggy so soon, but I'm sure you would have lived longer than him. Although, since I haven't played for so long, I don't understand the whole Graatch thing I feel left out Anyway, one hell of berserker, villager, and character. Great job, and good luck with whatever you do.

P.S. To all you Vershelt haters out there, it may please you do know I was the only villager to land a kill on him in the Rites But more importantly, you can all go to hell *wisenod*.

I'll echo what everyone else said on your forum, you were ten tons o'fun and a solid berserker. I don't much recall my interactions with Karashin, but Tugg, once he got into hero range, was always someone I looked forward to having around.

Thanks for the kind words, and damn you for getting that kill in the rites!!

I hope you are enjoying your next already.

Nicely played. The imperials and scions will definately have a rougher time of it now. IC I wouldn't have ever pegged you for Graatch, but the Nabb bashing on the forum pretty much gave you away. Cool rager. Enjoy your next.

Not sure who you are, but thanks. And yeah, I knew it would, but at that point I was just two or three deaths away from con dying so I didn't much care if I was outed.

Enjoy yours as well.

but whatever.

Vinson the character was good. you the player weren't so much. Here's why: you think you know stuff, but you don't. Such as who was being attacked first or not. Or who a battlerager would attack and why.

There's not much need to go into it now, but you should reconsider some of the things you think to be true, and you should not get quite so ooc in your comments. You said the same things in-game and they were clearly player-inspired, not character driven. THe proof in the pudding is that you say the exact same thing here and now, ooc.

I'm sure you're already playing another sect leader, so good luck.

I'm not going to get into a long argument with you because it's irrelevant. You killed a lot of mages so wootie woot. However, I based my assumptions on facts. I'm the only imperial and as soon as you logged in you were at the Palace. Unless you passed the mages on Eastern you didn't strike any mages first. Like I said, you killed a lot of mages but it always seemed to me like you were going for the easy prey because you knew I was going to come defend and you knew you weren't going to die. You knew this because it's what YOU the player expected. Clearly from your posts on Nabburak you expect people to come defend when you attack their cabal, whether or not they have anything to gain and even if they only have everything to lose. I did because I knew you weren't going to kill me, but then you came because you knew I wasn't going to kill you.

And you think I'm one of the current crop of sect leaders? You must not think much of me then.

You being the "only imperial" as you say is meaningless. An imperial is an imperial is an imperial. We are at war. I went whenever the codex was not in the village and I had at least a chance of taking it. So, when you were there, alone, I went. And took it. And killing a perfectly decked empire healer is not what anyone would call easy, especially at the inner guards. You try it one day. You're just bitter because you couldn't go do whatever you were hoping to do with your log-on time.

And of course I expect people to defend their cabals. But more importantly the *cabal* expects you defend it. If you didn't have the codex, then chances are I didn't come, and certainly didn't expect you to show up seriously. But with the codex? Of course you should have. Which you did. Nabburak did not.

And I never "passed a mage on eastern" that I didn't strike. Ever. Or at least try to. They would usually see me on the road and teleport or word. So you're just talking out your ass here.

Point is, you have no idea what I did or did not do when you weren't around - and that includes when you are logged on but not in the same area as I was - and what or who I fought. Hearing you complain that I came to both kill you and take your item is just silly. Your cabal and mine were enemies. That's my job. Your job, too.

Yeah, cloud giant, it's painfull. Even if you got a resist mental item, I would've still predicted a lot of pain. I could tank both your specs like a fiend. I had easy time preparing against bash. I could outdamage flurry when prepared. And most importantly, I had a way out, most of the time you didn't. I respected the guts you had, always comming for me. That time with the flurry, my anthem of resistance dropped right when you flurried, I had 0 dam redux. Had something like 50-100 hps when I got out. Then it crashed, and I came back with those same precious 50-100 hps, running like hell for cover. If it's any comfort, you had my heart beating and me running for my sorry ass for a good 20 mins.
One thing you did bothered me a bit, which was the rem all;put all pit you did at one defense. But I can see the frustration when you have nothing to do, and hardly a chance to escape. Also what you said about Nabburak, *shrug* I don't know the details. But overall props for the balls, a few nice tries where it might have gone downhill for me. And thanks for the kind words. See you in the fields!

68 mage kills/143 PK wins if I counted right. Something every single rage should look to achive. 68 mages. Helluva job.

Damn, I couldn't log back on for a few minutes and so lost that chance. Doh! You lucky bastard. Flurry is so unpredicatable, too. If I'd gotten a good one.... oh well.

As for the time I put my stuff in the pit, I was returning from the Whitecloaks to defend against three or four of you, at something like 550 hps. No way Vershelt wouldn't show up, but it was a sure death, and I'd just spent an hour or so regearing, so why waste it all? As a hand to hand spec I could try to defend and didn't need my weapons, so I fought and put my stuff away fast. If there'd been only one or two of you, I might not have, but three or four? Barrier'd and shielded and bard resisted and all that? Come on.

Good luck on your next, try to take it easy on the dumb races, will ya?

just wait till I play one. With con 23, I can give you 60 giant corpses in no time

But your forum persona gives you away too often. There's a reason people can pick out Graatch chars. Didn't interact with your character in game so can't say much about that. I thought some of the logs of you 'cherry-picking' raids waiting for people to flee out to wax them shoulda gotten you booted but then your PBF comments seem to indicate that wasn't a typical Vershelt thing.

Anywho, just figured I'd let you know that and I'm sure you probably don't really care anyway.

Good luck with the next.

Like I said above, by the time Nabburak's thread came I was two or three deaths from condying so I didn't care. Nobody knew it was me from the way the character behaved, and that's all that matters.

I also have no idea what you are talking about with this cherry picking stuff. I think you're on crack. But either way after almost 600 hours I can assure you Vershelt was all about finding fights whenever and wherever he could. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes not. And when he was successful, sometimes it didn't turn out the way he'd want.

Good luck with yours as well.

I knew from the #### you posted about Nabburak, and i don't even play.

Cheers.
Jhyrb.

which is what I said. what's your point?

::Nobody knew it was me from the way the character behaved, and that's all that matters.


Ummm.. you do realize that all your chars turn into spamming knubs when you don't get what you want? So yes, anyone could tell who you were by how your character behaved.. and that is not what you said.


Cheers.
Jhyrb.

Ummmm, no.

I'd be happy to provide some logs if your memory is hazy.

Yes, please do. And my memory is perfect, thank you.

You don't recall getting sanc'd and defending the Fortress? I remember that log quite well. Hanging outside of cabals where people were fighting hoping to axe people running away seems like a chicken #### thing to do.

<http://www.qhcf.net/cforum/logs/vpost.pl?50851>

More to come!

I wonder how he managed to get there before the Fortress eagle did? Also, I would not worry about the sanctuary in that log, I am sure he gave that healer a good strong talking to or slap on the wrist and never came back to defend the Fortress.

{SCION} the Archmage of Eternal Night: Say it.

Seriously. It's surprising even to me how idiotic you are being. Dumb enough that you don't deserve a rational response to your ridiculous statements, but others might not realize how pathetic you are so I'll just set them straight. You are mostly beyond redeeming, sadly.

I never asked for sanctuary or anything else for that matter, ever. The one or two times it happend, like that log, which conveniently shows only a snippet of the events, I was there because I went there, not because anyone had asked me or called me to come. And I warned the person who sanc'd me. I killed Rilliana when she interfered in a fight with a mage. Ask her.

Or ask Cytheraa, or whatever her name is. I attacked and chased her when she ####ed up, and stopped all relations with her until she apologized and did a few other things.

As has been said about ten thousand times before, by myself and the imms and others, people who hunt go where there enemy will be. Nobody called me to the fortress to defend them. I was there because I was there. It's called being smart.

It's crystal clear none of you have ever played a neutral rager for any length of time, or perhaps any rager in anything other than a passing way. I'm not there to kill a fortress healer, or warrior, or assassin, or anyone else. I'm around to kill magi and my cabal enemies. All good ragers go to the three cabals and their entrances regularly (empire, scion and fortress) because that's where our targetes are most likely to be. You can't seem to get that into your thick skulls.

As to the absurd cherry picking comment, maybe you don't know what it means. So I'll explain: cherry picking means you pick only fights you want to have, with a big advantage, and deliberately avoid other fights either mostly or entirely. Frankly, that's what most of you, especially a particular deposed emperor, did. Vershelt did not. Did I go into a fight against five people waiting for me? Not usually. But if there was a mage and I had a chance to kill him, I went in and fought. Also, keep in mind that if someone else is already fighting the mage, I, like all berserker ragers, tried to let them fight and not interfere until their combat was over. So, if I came to the fort and found people there fighting, I would see if any were my enemy (fort or scion or empire, it didn't matter) and then see if it was withing battle rules to fight. If not, I'd wait and see who became available. That's how it works when you're a rager. You obviously don't know that. Now you do.

Obviously it is not possible for a rager to be a cherry picker, especially berserkers. When you see the mage, you pretty much are destined to hunt it down while you can. Even if it is grouped or with others on the road, it is your duty to take down that mage, regardless of consequences, especially death

On that note, I cannot think of any other cabal where it would call for you to hunt relentlessly regardless of odds, short of the Maran, but even they can choose whether or not to fight.

It seems to me the so-called cherry picking is a player choice that in no way should be frowned upon. What makes this game great is that Immortals are there, adding an aspect other games cant hold a candle to. In the same light, they are there to punish when they deem it appropriate. Even if player A, emperor of thera has one villager to face, it does not mean he MUST go to retrieve. Bidding your time is simply a tactic of battle. If most of you know history, which I assume you do, the Russians defeated the great Napoleon army by mere retreat and burning villages. They had no food or resources to continue marching because of what the Russians did. But nobody in their right mind would scold the Russians for their brillance in this particular example.

Cherry picking, to me, seems to be a player's right. If they do it too frequently or are overly cautious by a large margin, I could easily see an immortal poking the person and kicking their arse over it. The only place cherry picking should not occur is within the Village.

Basically, I just want to say that Cherry picking is a right and tactic that while some may hate it, can be a superb option. (There are other tactics that are problems, such as ganging enemies and such, so it isn't surprising conflict arises) Whether or not Vershelt cherry picked would matter since he is in the Village. Personally, I had nothing but respect for him with Tuggluk. Frankly, I don't get where people can come off critsizing a character that 90% of the other populous liked. So what if you saw him get sanctuary in front of you. He didn't want it nor did he ask for it. All you, Resty, and Granaak, are doing is insulting a character most would agree was a good villager. Obviously, two opinions that say otherwise can be expressed, but you don't have to be stuck up assholes about it.

In the same light though, Vershelt, stop mentioning Nabburak and his 'cherry picking' That is his flipping right to do so, especially as an A-P and Emperor.

I just don't understand why people have to such awful b*#@hes sometimes. Vershelt, awesome character, Nabburak, awesome, Resty, awesome, Granaak, awesome. You all did incredibly well and yet have to come off being such retards to each other. Have some freaking respect and dignity and congratulate each other on good characters.

Undead_Irish.

Vershelt did, so I called him on it. Whether or not sitting at a cabal is a cherrypick, there is no denying that a berserker should have other priorities with a pk range like this:


|1127hp 1168m 876mv 427| who pk
<51 H-Elf Bar> (PK) Melacarfina Silverhammer the Matriarch of the Spire, Justiciar of Thera
<45 Gnome Inv> (PK) Hoekith the Master of Ice
<49 Dwarf Hea> (PK) Kalumgar the Holy Father, Elder Prophet of the Light
<51 Storm Hea> (PK) Llyria the Protector of Faith
<51 Gnome Inv> (PK) Tizquin the Weaver of the Elements
<51 H-Drw Hea> (PK) Onirakoth Wy'ioth the Elder Priest of the Fount, Provost Magistrate
*51 H-Drw Hea* (PK) (WANTED) Restraal the Immoderately Desirous Advisor of the Night, Protector of Devouring Faith
<44 H-Elf Bar> (PK) Velin the Master Songsmith
<46 Gnome Inv> (PK) Trumburum the Master of Pyrotechniques
<45 Human Shf> (PK) Azidreth the Xenomorph
<51 Cloud War> (PK) (WANTED) Vershelt the Legend of the Battlefield
<51 Duerg War> (PK) Teilli the Legend of the Battlefield, Elite Imperial Blade
<51 Human Hea> (PK) Vinson the Protector of Faith, Imperial High Priest
<50 Gnome Shf> (PK) Verdrondlith the Grand Master of Shapeshifting
<47 Human Nec> (PK) Honirdon the Spectre

Vershelt chose to come defend Maran (as he was wont to do; there's a reason he killed 3 Fortressers, and it wasn't because they don't have mages), jumping in on a 2v2 fight, rather than do the 'hard' thing and track down the mages in range. And that, my friend, is a cherrypick.

That a rager was not allowed to raid with other cabals, because they were supposed to accomplish their goals on their own. It might even have been you???? that took the scion scepter from my character with a past character of yours and let it return to the scions because of that.

In a sense, going to an enemy cabal "because that's where the magi are" when your enemy is being raided is not doing your own work.

Going to a non-enemy cabal that is being raided "because that's where your enemies are" is also not doing your own work if they have their hands full with defenders already (unlikely, I know, given the tendency of cabals other than ragers and maybe scion not to raid with odds of at least 3 to 1).

Maybe this is no longer frowned on. But I can't tell you how annoying it was to have four maran and a village thief raiding against just me in the Empire, or three villagers and a maran thief. Interesting how they "just happened to be there" when either the village or the fortress already had the codex. I turned up to fulfil my cabal obligations like you were saying Nabburak should do. What happened? I get jointly ganked by a village/maran team.

Sure, the enemy will be there, but at the same time, you are doing another cabal's dirty work and benefiting from another cabal's aid.

It might be legit, but I see it as on a par with what Nabburak would be doing if, as you claim, he wouldn't retrieve against you. Permitted, but undesirable.

>That a rager was not allowed to raid with other cabals,
>because they were supposed to accomplish their goals on their
>own. It might even have been you???? that took the scion
>scepter from my character with a past character of yours and
>let it return to the scions because of that.
>

Who is raiding with someone else? What are you babbling about? Vershelt didn't raid with other cabals, he didn't group up with marans to take the scepter or outlanders to take the codex or whatever. And he didn't give the items he took to those other cabals just because they might be better able to defend it. You are just talking silly here.

>In a sense, going to an enemy cabal "because that's where the
>magi are" when your enemy is being raided is not doing your
>own work.
>

Who said anything about "when your enemy is being raided"? I said most villagers just go to those cabals to find enemies. Raided or not. More often than not it was not a raid to take an item but to retrieve an item. Or to find that an enemy was hunting someone inside that cabal. But even so, so what? Not doing your own work? What does that mean? My work is to find and kill my enemies. Where in there does it say "Find and kill them, unless they are already doing something else, you know, like knitting, suntanning, rearranging sock drawers, or trying to get their item back or take another item"? Christ, what the hell?

>Going to a non-enemy cabal that is being raided "because
>that's where your enemies are" is also not doing your own work
>if they have their hands full with defenders already
> unlikely, I know, given the tendency of cabals other than
>ragers and maybe scion not to raid with odds of at least 3 to
>1).
>

That's absurd. See above. Ragers want to kill enemies. If a scion mage is at the fortress, the rager will try to kill the scion mage at the fortress. If a fortress mage is at the chasm, the rager will try to kill the fortress mage at the chasm. If an outlander mage is at the palace, the villager will try to kill the outlander mage. It's a very simple concept.

And by your logic a villager should only be able to fight his enemies in certain places and certain times, as though it's not war but really more like a tourney. Come on. That's just ridiculous.

>Maybe this is no longer frowned on. But I can't tell you how
>annoying it was to have four maran and a village thief raiding
>against just me in the Empire, or three villagers and a maran
>thief. Interesting how they "just happened to be there" when
>either the village or the fortress already had the codex. I
>turned up to fulfil my cabal obligations like you were saying
>Nabburak should do. What happened? I get jointly ganked by a
>village/maran team.
>

It was never frowned on. And I've never had four maran and a thief villager raiding. And when we are there at the same time it is interesting, because it's coincidence. And not even that big a coincidence. It's our ####ing jobs to take the items. Don't you think we would always be checking? Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

As for you personally, I'm glad you showed up. You should. I do, and all cabal members should. But I know I never grouped up with any marans to kill anyone. And if we were raiding at the same time, it was usually a competition to see who would get the final blow because we both wanted the item. Fighting defenders followed the same rules as any fight would. And I (and any villager) would obviously not join or help a group that was with a mage or helped by a mage. We'd attack it. Though that happened rarely because any group that came to raid at the same time as villagers were raiding, and brought a mage, quickly left. They didn't want a fight and were content to know we'd have the item.

>Sure, the enemy will be there, but at the same time, you are
>doing another cabal's dirty work and benefiting from another
>cabal's aid.
>

No, we're not. In any way.

>It might be legit, but I see it as on a par with what Nabburak
>would be doing if, as you claim, he wouldn't retrieve against
>you. Permitted, but undesirable.

Not even close. I, and villagers, are doing their jobs, fulfilling the actual point of the entire cabal. Killing our enemies. Nab did the exact opposite, avoiding his cabal responsibility in favor of his desire for self-preservation.

>Seriously. It's surprising even to me how idiotic you are
>being. Dumb enough that you don't deserve a rational response
>to your ridiculous statements, but others might not realize
>how pathetic you are so I'll just set them straight. You are
>mostly beyond redeeming, sadly.

Yeah, you're so much better of a human being than us. Now that that's out of the way.

>
>I never asked for sanctuary or anything else for that matter,
>ever. The one or two times it happend, like that log, which
>conveniently shows only a snippet of the events, I was there
>because I went there, not because anyone had asked me or
>called me to come. And I warned the person who sanc'd me. I
>killed Rilliana when she interfered in a fight with a mage.
>Ask her.

You still jumped in on a two on two.

>
>Or ask Cytheraa, or whatever her name is. I attacked and
>chased her when she ####ed up, and stopped all relations with
>her until she apologized and did a few other things.
>
>As has been said about ten thousand times before, by myself
>and the imms and others, people who hunt go where there enemy
>will be. Nobody called me to the fortress to defend them. I
>was there because I was there. It's called being smart.

Yeah, but attacking Tribunal's outer to get at Emmonev is fine whereas attacking the Tara'bal to get at the Captain who was a shifter apparently wasn't. 3 fortress kills and 50 or so uncaballed kills speaks vollumes.

>
>It's crystal clear none of you have ever played a neutral
>rager for any length of time, or perhaps any rager in anything
>other than a passing way. I'm not there to kill a fortress
>healer, or warrior, or assassin, or anyone else. I'm around to
>kill magi and my cabal enemies. All good ragers go to the
>three cabals and their entrances regularly (empire, scion and
>fortress) because that's where our targetes are most likely to
>be. You can't seem to get that into your thick skulls.

There's a difference between going there and saying," eh, seems like there's people fighting here already, it'd be pretty ####ty to sit around and try to finish off the maran's work". Or going there and saying, "Hrm, mages and scions. Let me wait around and see if I can oneround some of the people fleeing out."

>
>As to the absurd cherry picking comment, maybe you don't know
>what it means. So I'll explain: cherry picking means you pick
>only fights you want to have, with a big advantage, and
>deliberately avoid other fights either mostly or entirely.

Its fun to redefine terms.

>Frankly, that's what most of you, especially a particular
>deposed emperor, did. Vershelt did not. Did I go into a fight
>against five people waiting for me? Not usually. But if there
>was a mage and I had a chance to kill him, I went in and
>fought.

Worked the other way around too.

> Also, keep in mind that if someone else is already
>fighting the mage, I, like all berserker ragers, tried to let
>them fight and not interfere until their combat was over.

If by over you mean the guy flees and you pick him off while he's at 50 hp, then I agree.

> So,
>if I came to the fort and found people there fighting, I would
>see if any were my enemy (fort or scion or empire, it didn't
>matter) and then see if it was withing battle rules to fight.
>If not, I'd wait and see who became available. That's how it
>works when you're a rager. You obviously don't know that.
>Now you do.

Right, so in other words, you'd show up, go hey there's a scion. Wait til the Marans were defeated, then go in and try to take out the guy who was now at less than half health and half mana. That my friend is cherry picking.

I liked Vershelt, watching you pound on enemies, or occassionally my friends when I was on the other side =D
You where beastly not quite Acaga scale but dammned close.

Bah, Acaga's got nothin' on me!

I hope you play out the char and don't let him auto or anything. He's a solid character and one to be remembered.

Take it easy, pal.

You were one tough battlerager. Dealing with unspeaks continually was not enjoyable nor was it when berserker battleragers would swap on me like a tag team match in the WWF. One time in Galadon where there were three of you in a line all attacking me bouncing me around, that was delightful. Since Ordasen was there I am guessing he was okay with it.

I did not interact with you much beyond words, so I will only comment on that. I found your consistant roleplay, well, very consistant. And I also found your consistant roleplay to be the first time ever since I started playing the mud that someone with consistant roleplay took away from the roleplaying environment and my enjoyment of the game. It would have been better if you were just mute. Repeating the same six words over and over and over makes it just useless to roleplay with you. I have logs of you telling me the same six words in different orders almost fourty times in the span of a 15 minute conversation that went no where.

Interaction with you was a complete chore and there was nothing useful or enjoyable to get out of it. After that interaction above I wanted nothing to do with you anymore. Every time you spoke you just dispelled the illusion of CF, at least for me. There was absolutely no reason at all to interact with you beyond fighting.

You made a very effective cloud giant sword spec berserker, I'll give you that. Its a tried and true combo that definately works. I will also give you props for dealing with the less dedicated of the battlerager cabal. But damn, those conversations must have been enraging. I could not stand you for 10 minutes, I don't know how battleragers did it. But then again I don't know how you interacted with them.

>Repeating the same six
>words over and over and over makes it just useless to roleplay
>with you. I have logs of you telling me the same six words in
>different orders almost fourty times in the span of a 15
>minute conversation that went no where.

I guess it is more of a personality thing - just look at his rant in Nabburak's thread, the same words over and over in his replies: "weak", "not acceptable", "not tolerable", "shouldn't be in cabal". Good thing he took the clue and didn't strive to have the last word there, too

I think you are not remembering correctly but just sort of playing off false memory. I actually didn't unspeak you at all, maybe just once or twice. You ate a few annihilates and an erad, but mostly just oblits and regular hits.

I also don't think you're being accurate or fair in the tag team matching comment. It may have happened once or twice, but not more, certainly not where I was involved (I won't speak to what others may have done). Mostly it was you and me alone or you and other tribunals against me alone, sometimes in-range tribunals and sometimes out of range with hasted guards.

The thing that ticks me off a bit though is that you went pretty much ooc in talking to me. At first I told you to stop talking to me, and you didn't. Then, after you got frustrated, you told me to stop talking to you, in a complete reversal. Then you mentioned things like having powers not deserved, unearned, blah blah blah. Which is all ooc. Your character wouldn't have thought that. Nobody would. Because the gods have given those powers, and especially to someone titled drillmaster, etc. Nothing I'm saying is about me personally, whether I was good or bad. I'm saying from anyone's perspective Vershelt the cloud giant earned and deserved his powers. You may not like those powers, you may think nobody should have them, or whatever, but only an ooc player would have said what you said, the way you did, and as often as you did.

There were other examples but no need to go further here. I am happy to email you logs of it, I logged all of our interactions.

I was happy to kill you, though a pity I didn't take the holy weapon due to flurry lag and that dwarf being there to loot you. And unhappy to die to you at the end mostly because of a bug, twice. But them's the breaks.

I don't know the history here and just clicked on the link by mistake, but isn't the guy you're talking to sphere Envy or something like that? It would make sense to me for him to IC feel you don't deserve the powers you got (his character probably thinks he deserves them, not you, or something). Again, I don't know the context but I could see it being perfectly acceptable for someone to say you don't deserve the powers you have.

n/t

Having watched 99% of this through Emonnev's eyes, including the
fights he's talking about.. I can safely say.. his view of what
happened is correct. Quite often he has been a like one of those
metal balls in a pin ball machine. Fun to watch. I don't think
(fighting wise) anyone did anything wrong though. I've seen
you jump a fight a couple times, and other berserkers, but once
you (and they) realized what was up, you all did the right thing.
And fled, or didn't re-engage, etc.

As for dealing with Vershelts IC persona, as a mage, I also would
have just rather not. That's not to say your RP wasn't valid, but
there are only so many ways you can call a mage dumb, or a coward.

As for Emonnev's response to your RP, I can safely say he wasn't
in the slightest going OOC on you. And I'll leave it at that.

Marmaanth

Re: emonev, I'll find the logs and try to post them and we can let them speak for themselves. I think you're mistaken.

Thank you for the fun though at the end.

You were a god when it came to physical weapon types, if we had the head. Unfortunately I didn't feel your weapon specs complimented my old-school bard fighting style, which was a shame since you half-dragged me about most of the time.

I also fondly remember interviewing you. I was a little worried when you picked the spot I asked you to pick, but hey, who knew it was you behind that stuff.

Man, Granaak and Restraal were frustrating for us to fight. Wish we had better luck than we did.

Unfortunately I won't be playing a Rager anytime soon for the same #### you cited getting from random people. Only, I got it from powergamers simply because I wasn't smart like Gerylanst. And I got very sick of it before I even heroed. Ah well.

Yeah, you gave me a hard time in the beginning, not sure why other than that you didn't like the way I talked (which was frustrating for everyone, I know), and that you didn't much like berserkers as a scout yourself. But it worked out and you were fun when on, with a real berserker attitude insofar as you were spoiling for a fight all the time, ready to just up and go fight anyone, anywhere. That's what I think most suits villagers, especially berserkers.

Don't let them all get you down, go back to the village! Good luck.

Well done and well played. Drax always knew he could count on you when you were around. You had me a little worried after you became Drillmaster that you were letting the power go to your head, with the cocky attitude and all, but I have to say that all the uninducts you did seemed pretty warrented. Thought you played a great berserker and a fine villager. Drax is gonna miss you since your one of the few he felt close to. Traveling with you was always a highlight in playing for me. Good luck.

I was always a bit hesitant to ask for defender things like bandages and poultices because I didn't want people to think you were just slaves to scouts and berserkers, so I hope you didn't get that impression. You were good to have around both for those purposes, but also just for the good solid dwarf rp. I think you did that well.

Thanks for the compliments and I too enjoyed traveling together when we had the chance. Mostly to go kill Dern.

Good luck to you as well.

Good work. You were god damned annoying but in an ic way People being idiots in a real way is incredibly frustrating, and something I've not encountered anywhere near as often in other cabals. I feel we can thank Dio's for perpetuating this, but I digress...

It's good to see you choose a different type of character, I had no clue it was you until I noticed you with hooked swords/armor from there all of the time(something one of your old ragers had had one of my old defenders (either Vexoffesz or Derdhuin) help with a few times). Whereas, with Yuyuya, I had a good idea after 15 minutes of listening to you talk to someone else in the Inn

It was fun running with you for the little bit I did as Madarargh. Remember the night you died three times at the skeletons and I didn't die once? Haha, just had to rub that in while I had the chance.

Good luck with your next.

Come on, I'm not the only guy who knows where to get hooked swords and the greaves! Pshaw! I showed a lot of people where they are from with Vershelt now, so don't think you can make that assumption again, buddy.

Heh, that was you as Madaragh? Funny. Yeah, I didn't mind dying so much, as I was already a hero, but I thought it annoyingly funny that everyone die but you. Lucky bastard.

Thanks again and good luck with your next as well.

Had I known you were graatch (Maybe this was well known, i dont hang out in chat rooms anymore) I would have interacted with you differently. I would have tried to pull your cords a little.
There is nothing more fun than getting you all worked up

How do you find so much time to play at your age??

I was hoping to get the fun you had, but my playing times were very bad and my logins with cabal item would have been reversed

# of logins with their cabal item 227
# of logins without their cabal item 24
# of logouts with their cabal item 216
# of logouts without their cabal item 7
# of times they lost their cabal item 8
# of times they retrieved their cabal item 12
# of times they took another cabal item 196

Anyway, good job on Vershelt

So I wonder what Graatch 'the leader of worst-led hell party of all time, the spender of 30 hours to get shapeshift from 99 to 100 and the guy who made Twist angry by saying f&#k on cb' will make next.

Nobody knew, and I don't hang out in chat rooms either, but for the infrequent drop-in. Who were you that interacted with Vershelt? You didn't say. And I don't get worked up contrary to what people seem to think. Not unless there is a unicorn pendant involved, at least.

And my hell trip was not the worst led. Not even close. Hell, we were a first on dispater among other things. I've been on others, led others, and heard of others that were far worse. It was just unruly because we had so many people.

Not sure what I'll make next either, but it whatever it is will be a while, I'm tired out now. Playing the same char for 600 hours makes you feel a bit weird not having him to go home and play, I gotta get used to that now. And with the nice weather I'll be doing other things more. This was a December-May character.

Good luck to you too, and thanks for the compliments.

I was an arial rager, deleted at 44 because my playing time
is when all the russians/europeans play empire and no powers vs empire is really gay!

Worst hell trip is kind of like in the eye of the beholder.
I remember we had a group of like 14 people and spent 5 hours in the first three circles

I think I fell asleep a couple times while everyone read a room desc

Thanks for not squishing this lil' arial for pestering you all the time while trying to get inducted.

Any rager can only hope to make as big a mark on the cabal as you did. Every time you'd log in, I'd see a major uptick in the funstick for me (and probably most villagers) - you'd log on, take cabal items, defend/re-retrieve and it always seemed you wouldn't mind going in even when odds were stacked against you.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't go and roll a char that has some major firepower - it's gotta be a blast.

You know I actually asked Gerylanst if he would let me induct you (I had induct power, just wasn't supposed to use it for anything other than uninducting) because it felt like I saw you all the time but you never saw him. But he said no, he actually had seen you a few times but you didn't talk to him, so it's your own fault. I said ok, of course. But was worried you wouldn't get in. When I logged on one day and heard you say hello over the cb I smiled. More than almost anyone else you made an impression on me - a good impression - as an applicant ready and willing to help whenever possible.

I hope you stick with him even if you have some bad times. I think you have the makings of an excellent villager.

Thank you for the kind words, and good luck!

And you wonder why I wouldn't correct you IC.

If I had seen him, I definitely would have bugged him too. And I thought I typed "who" alot - maybe not as often as I should have! I guess I was just unlucky for a while - but now I'm in... so I'll just have to keep impressing.

Being a villager certainly helps me find fights easier than as a lone thief - well, really, fights finding me. What fun.

- Mark (otherwise known as the infernal Graatch. Man I gotta ditch that name.)

Go ahead and ditch it. Graatch is dead and gone. You've had a string of excellent characters. That's what I remember.

Khas

Thanks man. Appreciated.

-Vershelt

Anyway, that’s the skinny on Vershelt. Goodbyes now. You play a character for five months and almost 600 hours, you’re going to meet a lot of people. Forgive me for taking the easy way out, but.... please post and I will respond. I would very much love to hear from anyone who wants to voice their opinion (good or bad, I can take it) but I just can’t bring myself to try and remember the dozens who impacted Vershelt’s life.

I'm not sure if I made any impact on your life, however, your character was notable enough and I will make some comments.
Overall, a decent rager. Not the perfect though. I can repeat all the praises from this thread ( and most of them are truth ) but in order to save space I will skip them and go straight to the things I didn't like.

I didn't like the dirty tricks. Like droppping your eq before going into risky retrievals ( not retrievals by force ). That's pure OOC thing.
And you would go into those retrieval right after your logins while you still have rager powers.
Though it made it easier to intersect you once I figured that out.
You also dragged me into dumb-####-talks a few times ( my fault ). I thought it is your RP but now I know the reason, it's Graatch!

Also here is some statistic observation based on your PBF:

Cabal Statistics
# of logins with their cabal item 227
# of logins without their cabal item 24
# of logouts with their cabal item 216
# of logouts without their cabal item 7
# of times they lost their cabal item 8
# of times they retrieved their cabal item 12
# of times they took another cabal item 196

Either, the Battle cabal is dominating or your playing hours were well timed.

PK Wins by Cabal
VS. None 52
VS. FORTRESS 3
VS. HERALD 1
VS. EMPIRE 31
VS. SCION 25
VS. TRIBUNAL 31

It shows that fortress mages were very safe.
You killed more healers than fortress mages.
I understand that when you help the Fortress and ambush incoming imperials and scions there you can have good excuses.
But for future neutral ragers also try to ambush fortress mages when they raid or retrieve from Empire/Scion, by doing so you can get this statistic more balanced.

The first one I totally agree, like I said in my post. The whole keeping eq safe in tricky spots was sort of lame. However, note that scions and empire are inherent enemies of ragers. The uncaballed mages also tend to more or less hate the village. As a neutral rager, it's very hard to get the kills on those fortress mages, since they will be avoiding any fights with you. It's hard to nail kills on someone who doesn't want to kill you, especially mages who can just avoid you by word/teleport/air forms.

As a neutral rager, it's very hard to get the
kills on those fortress mages, since they will be avoiding any
fights with you. It's hard to nail kills on someone who
doesn't want to kill you, especially mages who can just avoid
you by word/teleport/air forms.

Agreed, it is not easy. But when you actually TRYING you can do better than 3 fortresses ( let us assume they all were mages ) in 600 hours.

A few hints how you can do that:
1) Lurk near the Palace, wait until the maran gang attacks Nabburak.
Jump in and pound a fortress mage, not Nabburak. Once the mage is dead, bash Nabburak ( who should be almost dead by the time ).
Thus you get two mage kills.

2) Come to the Chasm when marans raid it. Jump in and slay them.

3) Come to Darsylon and send a tell to Azidreth: "Fortressman, giant gonna kill an elf in Darsylon every hour. Come and defend them. Or run run run and hide hide hide while I slay them."
Spam fortress mages with such tells every hour and slay the elves.

4) Look for mages not only at the Volcano, but also in areas where lightwalkers like to advance.

>I didn't like the dirty tricks. Like droppping your eq before
>going into risky retrievals ( not retrievals by force ).
>That's pure OOC thing.

Not sure what "dirty trick" this is, how I lured someone to die in some underhanded way. Frankly, your statement sounds like you missed getting some equ as a player, which is the ooc thing, not what Vershelt did. If you're going to die and are sure of it, why would you want to lose all of your clothing as well? If there was a chance of success, he kept his stuff. If not, I tried to save it. And that was for a total of three times I think in the almost 600 hours, so I'm not sure what your point is.

>And you would go into those retrieval right after your logins
>while you still have rager powers.
>Though it made it easier to intersect you once I figured that
>out.

Again, what's the dirty trick here? What's the problem? That I tried to retrieve quickly when learning we didn't have the head? You aren't making any sense.

>You also dragged me into dumb-####-talks a few times ( my
>fault ). I thought it is your RP but now I know the reason,
>it's Graatch!
>

Whatever.

>Also here is some statistic observation based on your PBF:
>
>Cabal Statistics
># of logins with their cabal item 227
># of logins without their cabal item 24
># of logouts with their cabal item 216
># of logouts without their cabal item 7
># of times they lost their cabal item 8
># of times they retrieved their cabal item 12
># of times they took another cabal item 196
>
>Either, the Battle cabal is dominating or your playing hours
>were well timed.
>

My playing times are my playing times. They have been for pretty much the better part of the last decade, after work and on weekends. A few random daytimes when I am not at work for whatever reason. And when I am on, yeah, we dominated. Do I take credit for that? Not all, or even most, but some, sure. Note the big amount of times I took someone else's item. Those were not all against no opposition. People sometimes tried to defend, or were at least logged on, and I did it anyway. You would know, you were there, you just didn't come try and defend or subsequently retrieve.

>PK Wins by Cabal
>VS. None 52
>VS. FORTRESS 3
>VS. HERALD 1
>VS. EMPIRE 31
>VS. SCION 25
>VS. TRIBUNAL 31
>
>It shows that fortress mages were very safe.
>You killed more healers than fortress mages.
>I understand that when you help the Fortress and ambush
>incoming imperials and scions there you can have good
>excuses.
>But for future neutral ragers also try to ambush fortress
>mages when they raid or retrieve from Empire/Scion, by doing
>so you can get this statistic more balanced.
>

Here you are just talking out your ass, and since I know you're not stupid, you're being deliberately dumb here, so I think you've earned what you're about to get.

Let's do this the simple way. I killed 31 Empire it says. 25 Scion. 3 Fortress. Ok. How many members of the empire cabal are my enemy? All. 100%. So my goal is to kill every single one. And there are what, 40? 50? sometimes more bloodoaths/citizens? Right. Now, how many members of the scion cabal are my enemy? All. 100%. So my goal is to kill every single one. And there are what 10? 20? scoins? How many members of the fortress cabal are my enemy? Oh, wait, a small percentage. What, 10%? 5%? Meaning what, 3? 5? Total? Has history shown us hordes of fortress magi running around or are there far more usually a bunch of paladins, shamans, warriors, thiefs, assassins, healers, etc? Right. So, if I were able to kill every single one of my enemies, I'd still have the ratio you see in my numbers, because all of empire and scion are my enemy and only a small percentage of fortress is my enemy.

Now, let's talk about those enemies. As we all know, pk, like the tango, takes two (at least). I may be hunting all I want but the other half of the game is that they are hunting me as well. When both sides are looking to kill eachother, that's when things happen and deaths occur. So let's look at Vershelt's situation. Is the village an enemy of the empire? Sure is. Is the village an enemy of the scions? You betcha. How about the fortress? Oh wait, no, it isn't. So what does that mean? It means that empire and scion characters are hunting for Vershelt as much as Vershelt hunts them. It means that each side has the incentive and desire to get pk action going. But with the fortress, that's not true. What happens? They just don't fight. And they aren't looking for me so we are far less often in the same place. 50% is as much as one side can do. And that's all Vershelt got because the fortress people weren't looking to fight me.

So now we have the small subset of fortress people that I want to kill, that are not looking to fight me or kill me. How can I get them to fight me? Well, if I want to engineer a fight or try and bring someone to me, isn't that what cabals are all about? With empire, I can go raid, take an item, defend an item, try and take mine back. All of which are designed to increase conflict and bring pk action. Can I go take the fortress item? Can I raid them? Can I force that small subset of fortress people that I want to fight to come to the village because I've taken their item? Nope. None of that. So by definition I'll be doing a nearl infinite more fighting (whether I want or not) against empire and scions because that's what the cabal system is all about.

Now, we have a pretty miniscule subset of a group that doesn't want to fight me, doesn't want to kill me or die themselves, and that I cannot force to fight through cabal means. What happens when I go there and challenge or start a fight? Are they like the empire or scions and look to keep a fight going once started? Are they prone to backbiting and setting eachother up with deception? Damn, they sure ain't. So what happens? I start to fight one of those few fortress magi and all the others are there wording that one away, healing that one, succoring that one, rescuing (paladins and warriors, remember?) and pretty much doing everything to protect that person without actually killing me. And finally, even if nobody else is there, these are the magi we're talking about so they can just... wait for it.... recall. teleport. shape into a bird and go where I literally cannot. And then send a tell saying how much they respect me. *snort*

So let's put all this together. You're complaining that I killed too few fortress people, and saying that because of that small number you think the fact is that I didn't try to hunt fortress magi. Well, you're wrong on all counts.

You go play a neutral village warrior and you tell me how you do with the fort magi killing. The facts are that I did go to the fortress almost as often as I went to the palace and the chasm. The fact is that I actually did break the rules once or twice because I wanted so much to kill a fort mage, and so attacked the maran outer guard. The fact is, ####head, that I never helped fortress people ambush anyone. I made it a routine to check all the cabals because, as you likely know, that's where a good portion of the action happens. And when the fort held items, that's a good bet on where to find my enemies. Vershelt attacked magi. It didn't matter what cabal they were part of or if they were not part of any cabal at all. It didn't matter if they were coming to raid a common enemy or not. You are just talking out of your ass, again.

Finally, you have no ####ing clue where Vershelt went to look for magi, volcano or otherwise. You weren't with me. Vershelt went to the usual goodie ranking places, mostly the skeletons and the elemental temple and what have you. So shut up.

Maybe it's best if you let this guy get the last word and comfort yourself with the fact that at the end of the day, your Rager got on to the pillar and his was one of only two Emperors to be overthrown. Think of the worst Emperor in the history of CF - OK. That guy didn't get booted, Nabburak did. If that doesn't comfort you while you let him get his last futile words, I don't know what will.

Not sure what "dirty trick" this is, how I lured someone to
die in some underhanded way. Frankly, your statement sounds
like you missed getting some equ as a player, which is the ooc
thing, not what Vershelt did.

Just a remark. I didn't miss your eq. My eq was better than yours.
You better to look for a stronger argument than this one.

If you're going to die and are sure of it,
why would you want to lose all of your clothing as well?

Because you're a rager and willing to put everything you have for the cabal cause?
Why would a berserker weaken himself before raiding?
Just because he fears to lose his eq?

If there was a chance of success, he kept his stuff.
If not, I tried to save it. And that was for a total of three
times I think in the almost 600 hours, so I'm not sure what
your point is.

As a hand to hand spec, you have very good chances to reraid against bad odds.
Stun is beautiful in such situations.
When you drop your eq you reduce your chances greatly.
I'm not sure how you can justify this from IC point of view.
But whatever, ask battle immortals what they think about it,
beucase my words failed to reach you.

>And you would go into those retrieval right after your logins
>while you still have rager powers.
>Though it made it easier to intersect you once I figured that out.

Again, what's the dirty trick here? What's the problem? That I
tried to retrieve quickly when learning we didn't have the
head? You aren't making any sense.

The trick is that you put all your powers up before quitting
and perhaps move to the closest spot to the Palace before quitting
keeping in mind the OOC fact that you will still have your powers
even when you login without the head.
From IC point of view you should expect that you have no power and act accordingly.
But OCC you know this "bad design" and use it.
No big deal, many do that, just don't try to convince me it is IC when it is pure OOC stuff.

My playing times are my playing times. They have been for
pretty much the better part of the last decade, after work and
on weekends.

When I was a little harmless barrierless AP I saw you a lot
picking on Vinson or me or something like that.
When I reached my potential and Empire started to dominate in my playing hours
I hardly saw you around.
You can argue that your playing time is yours and you do what you want with it. Okay.
However, don't try to convince me that your playing hours were the same. They were not.

As for me not trying to defend or reraid. Just drop it. It is straightforward lie.
Some times I did not, sometimes I did.
I'm pretty sure my cabal statistic in regards of retrievals is much better than yours.

>PK Wins by Cabal
>VS. None 52
>VS. FORTRESS 3
>VS. HERALD 1
>VS. EMPIRE 31
>VS. SCION 25
>VS. TRIBUNAL 31
>
>It shows that fortress mages were very safe.
>You killed more healers than fortress mages.
>I understand that when you help the Fortress and ambush
>incoming imperials and scions there you can have good
>excuses.
>But for future neutral ragers also try to ambush fortress
>mages when they raid or retrieve from Empire/Scion, by doing
>so you can get this statistic more balanced.

Here you are just talking out your ass, and since I know
you're not stupid, you're being deliberately dumb here, so I
think you've earned what you're about to get.

I'm just better than you when it comes to numbers.

Let's do this the simple way. I killed 31 Empire it says. 25
Scion. 3 Fortress. Ok.

You've killed 70 mages. And only 3 or even less fotresses mages.

Has history shown us hordes of fortress magi running around or
are there far more usually a bunch of paladins, shamans,
warriors, thiefs, assassins, healers, etc?

Fortress has many mages. Perhaps even as many as Empire or Scion.

It means that empire and scion characters are
hunting for Vershelt as much as Vershelt hunts them.

I can't say about scions. But by your own words even the most powerful mage
of Empire at the times ( me ) would run and teleport from you every time.
I'm not sure which of Empire mages was hunting you, especially considering
the fact that Empire almost had no mages in your PK for months.

So what happens?
I start to fight one of those few fortress magi and
all the others are there wording that one away, healing that
one, succoring that one, rescuing (paladins and warriors,
remember?) and pretty much doing everything to protect that
person without actually killing me. And finally, even if
nobody else is there, these are the magi we're talking about
so they can just... wait for it.... recall. teleport. shape
into a bird and go where I literally cannot.

Yes, that is the main problem when you fight fortress mages.
Perhaps that is why most of villagers avoid to fight them.

Can I claim that you didn't hunt fortress mages? No.
Can I claim that you were not very succesful at that? Yes.

From what I've seen, you ambushed me several times on retrival from the Fortress.
If you want to kill fortress mages, you can try the same trick
when they reraid/raid Empire or Scion.

I was wondering how you were doing on CON. You were a hero and a Veteran when I first applied. Thought perhaps age was going to get you.
Really liked playing with you. I literally looked up to you, and when I saw your name on where, I saw the most ferocious warrior the village had fighting for them. I liked how you were mostly serious, when its so easy to start goofing off. I think you might agree we were never really meant to be grouped up much. I thank you for the times we explored for equipment, didn't ask you too often, I know how annoying it is, and your time was much better spent killing mages. We were two totally seperate forces. And when we got together we just slowed each other down in raiding situations(IMHO) Sure did take those inner guardians down quick though. I remember being somwhere, trying to get to the palace before you had the codex, cause you not only could take it alone with ease, but did it so quick you would down it before I could even get around. One thing I wish we had the chance to do was be in a massive defense at the destructor, would have been fun. I thought your RP was good, and the few times I was even bothered by the simplicity of your talk I only had to think of the rock giant from A never ending story, and BAM you were suddenly this massive giant, YAAAAHHHHHHH!!! VERSHELT EAT MAGE!!!!
I had no doubts your mage kills were going to top all current villagers, you were after them, and thats what made you a good battlerager to me. A legend in your time, rest in...

peace

Ghrulkar

Ah Ghrulkar. You were ten different kinds of fun, seriously. Not once did I have anything but a blast when we were on together. You are right, we didn't spend much time actually hunting magi together (more common were the trips to kill Dern, you punk ) but the times we did do things together we took down whoever we fought pretty damn quickly.

Yeah, I didn't get as much big defenses at the Destructor as I'd hoped with Vershelt. Either people didn't come when they saw me around, or they would wait until they had such overwhelming force that it wasn't much of a defense. Pity, but them's the breaks.

Also, obviously, I loved having a duerg around to tell me if any hideman or thiefmen were around. Hate those pesky hiders....

Thanks for the compliments, and right back at you my friend. Keep up the good work.

Yup, thanks for padding my PKrat!


As a rager, you were extremely well played and fun to watch at
times. I mostly saw you through the eyes of the Tribunal,
which isn't usually a pleasant sight. You killed Mages.
That's all we can expect from a villager. But then you were
also a good leader.

So all around, a job well done.


Good luck with your next. Maybe a Trib, eh?


Marmaanth

Thank you, much appreciated.

After Farnsworth I decided to take a good while before doing the spire again. But that was two years ago now I think, so maybe it's time....

Was a bit turned off about the Nabburak comments but in
all other respects you seemed to be pretty good IC and
OOC'ly, especially looking at all of your PBF Immortal
Comments, impressive.

Anyways, you were definitely tough, wish you luck with
the next,

- Runaktla

You got SOOOO lucky that one time in the chasm, I was litereally screaming at my computer "Nooo!" Heh. Good times.

You were what one expects of the competent transmuter: impossible to find, crafty, and deadly when you chose to fight. Well done all around, Fleshcrafter.

At times i hated you so much...

in our youth you attacked me twice unprovoked on eastern, and i always remembered that as bad form for a rager. However i found our bickering amusing at times..."little man" and all the stuff about i should become a herald and put up a show. It did not take away the pleasure from killing you. You were a beast though and i think it ended 2-2 or 2-3 in your favor. Keep in mind Varg as a pincersvirf was well equipped to fight any giant. I am glad you seemed to prefer swords above fists for some reason....???

It was not the first nor the last time we will clinch in fight. Next time i will make you cry and rage delete .

Bah, you were one or two of my bug deaths, when you could take guards out of the city even when the scales were down. But you were a viscious killer and though Vershelt hated you I the player knew you would always be a tough fight.

The only times I would use swords was when you had the guards and I couldn't focus on you, so I needed better defense. Otherwise I always tried to use fists when fighting you. But you had like 10k hp so it didn't seem to matter.

Good luck.

Well played! I echo most of the positive sentiments others have posted here, so I won't be redundant. I'll address a few of your points below.

Wanted to see what could be achieved with absolutely no role written - but consistent rp, meaning how much longer will behavior take to get noticed/rewarded in the absence of a written role, if at all. Wanted to get a tattoo I’d never had before (though which tattoo changed as time went on).

No role can slow things down a bit, especially if your patron Imm isn't around as much (like me) to interact with you. It takes no small amount of observation to start to build the picture, and a role can help fill in large chunks of that picture right from the start. Not required, but helpful.

Wanted to make a pillar-worthy rager. Wanted to be deathful. Wanted to be loved by my friends and allies and hated and feared by my enemies.

Pillar-worthy...only time will tell!

Other than the pillar part which is yet to be determined of course, I satisfied my desires. Thank you very much, Kastellyn, for the props and con and tattoo* and title. Only wish we actually had more time to interact rather than just the “Yeah, I did that, good job” wizi stuff. I know it’s just bad timing with life and no blame at all, just being wistful.

You earned all of the above. As for the tattoo, without going into too much detail, it is focused on specific spheres and isn't invokable. I might have to change that, though, since it was originally designed around a religion and empowered characters. Food for thought for me.

And thank you both Kastellyn and Ordasen for the Veteran and then Drillmaster spot, and especially for the induct power, which let me play for at least an extra month. I may be wrong, but I suspect you created the new drillmaster job description just as an excuse to give me the induct power so I could have leader con and aging. Which was all I wanted. The only reason I wanted to be commander, when you asked me in the rites, was that I wanted the extra con and time. Getting that, and not having to be the induct-guy, was just perfect for me. 2nd in command is fine with me. So thank you again.

Thrak gave me the idea, and I was kicking myself for not thinking of it myself. It was all about the position, though, and not about the leader aging and con (which can be both a blessing and a curse). I think you'll see more Drillmasters with the same abilities in Battle in the future...it adds an interesting dynamic.

He would love to express himself in long flowing terms (well, not really) but he couldn’t because he didn’t speak your tongue or the common tongue that well. He did get marginally better over time, but not much.

This would have been very helpful to know via the role command! I never broke the code on his speech, ever. Maybe that's what you wanted, though...

Mark (otherwise known as the infernal Graatch. Man I gotta ditch that name.)

Ditch it, post as a different past character if you want. You've got more than a few successful ones to pick from that have much better connotations that Graatch.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

>Well played! I echo most of the positive sentiments others
>have posted here, so I won't be redundant. I'll address a few
>of your points below.
>

Thank you.

>Wanted to see what could be achieved with absolutely no
>role written - but consistent rp, meaning how much longer will
>behavior take to get noticed/rewarded in the absence of a
>written role, if at all. Wanted to get a tattoo I’d never had
>before (though which tattoo changed as time went on).
>
>No role can slow things down a bit, especially if your patron
>Imm isn't around as much (like me) to interact with you. It
>takes no small amount of observation to start to build the
>picture, and a role can help fill in large chunks of that
>picture right from the start. Not required, but helpful.
>

I know, and that's always the party line, but I wanted to see it in action. Was deliberate. Worked as I expected.

>Wanted to make a pillar-worthy rager. Wanted to be
>deathful. Wanted to be loved by my friends and allies and
>hated and feared by my enemies.
>
>Pillar-worthy...only time will tell!
>

Bah, you lazy bard, you can't even get Acaga on the pillar and you've wanted to do that for almost a year!

>Other than the pillar part which is yet to be determined of
>course, I satisfied my desires. Thank you very much,
>Kastellyn, for the props and con and tattoo* and title. Only
>wish we actually had more time to interact rather than just
>the “Yeah, I did that, good job” wizi stuff. I know it’s just
>bad timing with life and no blame at all, just being wistful.
>
>

>You earned all of the above. As for the tattoo, without going
>into too much detail, it is focused on specific spheres and
>isn't invokable. I might have to change that, though, since
>it was originally designed around a religion and empowered
>characters. Food for thought for me.
>

Hehe, I wrote that about your tattoo just to mess with everyone else here reading. You and I both knew it did nothing for me other than the stat bonus of a piece of equ. (I'll keep quiet on what that is, of course.) I will say though that for a tattoo that is about as rare as they come, and demands not only proficiency in rp but also in pk, and even more, demands hundreds of hours before even thinking about getting it... you might give it a bit more juice.

>And thank you both Kastellyn and Ordasen for the Veteran
>and then Drillmaster spot, and especially for the induct
>power, which let me play for at least an extra month. I may
>be wrong, but I suspect you created the new drillmaster job
>description just as an excuse to give me the induct power so I
>could have leader con and aging. Which was all I wanted. The
>only reason I wanted to be commander, when you asked me in the
>rites, was that I wanted the extra con and time. Getting
>that, and not having to be the induct-guy, was just perfect
>for me. 2nd in command is fine with me. So thank you
>again.
>
>Thrak gave me the idea, and I was kicking myself for not
>thinking of it myself. It was all about the position, though,
>and not about the leader aging and con (which can be both a
>blessing and a curse). I think you'll see more Drillmasters
>with the same abilities in Battle in the future...it adds an
>interesting dynamic.
>

Well, a big hearty thank you to Thrak! And I think it's an excellent twist on the old standard. Battle leaders are already under a lot of pressure. This takes at least one bit off, and perhaps the most unpleasant part. And you're right, the aging and con can be either a blessing and a curse, depending on player fatigue, but for me I was looking for as much as possible. So a double thank you both for the position and for the benefit of induct.

>He would love to express himself in long flowing terms
> well, not really) but he couldn’t because he didn’t speak
>your tongue or the common tongue that well. He did get
>marginally better over time, but not much.
>
>This would have been very helpful to know via the role
>command! I never broke the code on his speech, ever. Maybe
>that's what you wanted, though...
>

Oh I know - now that you know who the player is you know I am aware of the role command. But as I said it was purposeful, to see how it worked sans role. It was both fun and sometimes frustrating, as I'm sure you would expect. Singman godman smart!

>Mark (otherwise known as the infernal Graatch. Man I gotta
>ditch that name.)
>
>Ditch it, post as a different past character if you want.
>You've got more than a few successful ones to pick from that
>have much better connotations that Graatch.
>

Yeah, I think maybe I'll just use Vershelt.

Thanks again for the fun and the kind words. You do a terrific job yourself.

Been busy however now I have time to do a batch of post on dead ragers. I will echo alot of what has been said, but I know people always like feedback no matter what.

Vershelt was a great rager in that he would go balls to the walls and more times then not come out on top. A great rager role model in that aspect, which is why you earned that spot on the pillar. I will say the character was a bit needy at times, kind of always wanting something special, but I guess everyone always wants something like that be it a weapon, extra legacy, what say you. Other then that I though a great well rounded char.

As to the position, its been said before. It wasn't made for you, but you made it great. I just wished you were a little tougher on a few more who dont pull their weight .

You have rubbed me wrong with a few chars, however always willing to give you a fair shake. Drop the Graatch and just keep trucking with the good chars you have had. There will always be those not wanting to let go of the past and pick at what is easy.

Good luck in the future.

Heh heh. Loved our interactions. Solid character, one I always had to watch for. Sorry I couldnt grant you more duels than I did but there's not alot of down time lately. Zak truely respected Vershelt. Though when you attacked the maran a few times to get a him I was a bit disappointed. I know Vershelt said maran had done such to the giant to get at dark hearted villagers, though Zak never did. So that kinda frustrated him for a while, especially since the imperials took advantage of the maran being wounded and myself being too hurt to really do much to help. But seriously, good character, everything I thought a cloud giant beserker should be. And I always laughed when I'd get the 'Where stupid mage hide?' tells out of the blue. Good luck with your next.

I the player loved our interactions too, but you, like the rest of the marans, provided some problems for Vershelt. You were all so damn nice to him! You, and one or two others, would send him tells saying "Good job killing that imperial" or "don't worry, I'm not going to help them against you" or something like that. Vershelt didn't want praise from any damn dirty mage!

The other problem I had with fortress people is the hypocrisy in one regard: you (meaning a fortress person, not you particularly) would walk down the road, see me and some duerg villager. You would send me a tell saying "Don't interfere, my fight's not with you" and would proceded to attack the duerg. I, as a berserker, would usually (though not always) just watch and not assist.

But then, I'd come attack a fortress mage, saying the same thing to everyone else in a big fat yell, and what would happen? You'd all defend him and gang up on me.

You really shouldn't have it both ways, and you (fortress players) were really trading on the ooc knowledge of villager rules about parity more than anything else. You shouldn't ask or expect a brother not to help his brother being attacked. That really, really, really annoyed me.

But you personally didn't do much of that, so I'm sorry I got on that little rant there in your reply.

You were fun but frustrating to fight because of your serious dam redux. A giant sword spec berserker kills when he can outdamage, and outdamage somewhat quickly. You made that very hard. So well done.

I hope you are enjoying yourself, good luck with this and the next!

Come on, people write books about different groups all the time. Lore goes around, especially from the oldest cabal in the game. Your comments that is OOC is totally wrong, as it seems most of your comments about what is supposedly "OOC".

Usually I tried to tell them not to interefere if it was a duel with a villager, though sometimes when I got jumped and I wasnt ready it's hard to convey that with an animal form. Not many people understand the shaking head thing apparently. I would usually ask to fight the dark hearted villagers before any others but I'd grant duels when I could. Had alot of fun. Thanks again for all the fun fights.

Just wanted to give you some love from your earlier hero days and the times coming up in battle with you. You were a solid, competant player from what I saw and I was glad to have gotten to hang with you some. You taught me a few new things and hopfully I reciprocated that as well. Having played almost the same combo to a Tee, I have to say that when I chose Soul of the Mountain, I almost immeadiately wish I would have taken Whispers. Which of course you took. I remeber being grouped with you and us raiding or what not, and you healing almost twice as fast as I did. Hope it served you well. I havent really followed the bashing that has ensued here, but just wanted to tell you good job, and judging from your PBF the IMMs seemed to think so as well. Later.

Those were some good ole days, as they say. I always wondered how Soul would have worked instead of Whispers. I only know about the 200hp benefit to Soul, so I can only compare to that, which given that I'd go Whispers. But soul maybe (probably) has other benefits I don't know about. Also, personally, I'm thinking that as you get better at the game and know where to get gear that gives you hp as well as the other bonuses you want (dam, hit, svspell, str, dex, etc.) that soul gets less useful. Just a guess.

Good luck on your next and thanks for your compliments.