Sun Jan 15 13:14:50 2006

At 11 o'clock AM, Day of the Sun, 6th of the Month of the Ancient Darkness
on the Theran calendar Harlow perished, never to return.

You were one of the few who were in when I was new. Laenelis liked you. I as a player thought you were damn solid, especially if I'd see you die, no complaints, just pick yourself up and jump right back in. Good having you around.

I enjoyed hunting the same times as Laenelis, and I had the impression that you knew what you were doing and you understood and accepted the way I was trying to hunt. I never had any trouble imagining a wild elf druid in any of my interactions with you.

Keep up the solid work, you give the wood-elf race much credit.

Harlow was one of my favorites as far as elders go...I think we could have had very complimentary characters had you been able to continue longer. I appreciated greatly your calm approach to things and taking the time to talk with me.

I really liked Brodie too. Be nice to those poor students, and come back if you get the chance!

Keep up that quest of yours, it had the makings of a good line to follow. It is nice to see Outlanders with a respectable bunch of outlaws now like you, for a while there it was slim pickings it seemed like.

And I'm always nice to the students, I swear I never flunk more than half of them. Well, almost never.

You were of course one of the elders when I first came into the refuge and always seemed strong and dependable.

I really appreciated our times on the mountain as I got older.

The first few cabal wars, I tried to get you to come with us when we raided, then eventually realized that you were better staying in the forests somewhere close to the fighting or defending another cabal item alone while the rest went out. I realized that Rangers are truly limited on what they can do out of the woods and decided it was best to just trust you to do your own thing.

You seemed to be a solid ranger and now it makes sense why. Your damage burst potential was impressive. I knew you had taken some hard deaths and tried to think of you when I came across things you could use.

To wrap things up, you will be missed and were a very important part of the Refuge.

Thanks Aeria, I enjoyed our hunts together as well. And you were observant about rangers out of the woods and I appreciated that. I had trouble retrieving the fetish alone and unopposed from the Spire even at hero if I did not have a haste prep. That made me realize just how much rangers give up out of the wilds.

I'm not sure but I can't think of another class that sacrifices so much based on where they fight. Granted, they get a lot when they fight in the wilds, so I tried to play it from that angle. When I went out of the wilds it was usually to try and lure someone back out, and of course that seldom worked unless they were well prepped or with others.

By the way, I think you were a great choice for Harbinger. In the highly unlikely case that I had been offered it, I would've turned it down because of the role I was playing.

Good luck and have fun.

Sorry to see you go. I havent played in awhile myself, work and such. I really looked forward to being on as the same time as you. We seemed to click the first time we met, before either of us were outlanders. Tahlek easily considered Harlow his closest friend.

Good luck to you and if you ever want to hit me up between classes, its godkarma@yahoo.com

Best of luck and Harlow will be missed!

I hated to see Tahlek go a while back as well. It was looking like we'd have a wood-elf posse up there to annoy all the lesser races with dueling snares, multiple Hunts, all kinds of good things!

If you decide to do another wood-elf ranger, I recommend just 2 things: get some +str gear and use the ranger weapons. By 45 they are good and by 50 they are really good weapons. And while the numbers don't mean everything (really, I had up to a 53 damroll without any preps/spells) they certainly make it so you don't have to be a gear whore).

And if you use only one prep, make it haste, just try to find one that doesn't knock you out half the time, that was annoying.

Thanks and good luck on your next one, time to start prepping lectures for me.

First Tahlek, now you..Im not sure of many outlanders left who were inducted around the same time me, you and Tahlek....

think Im the last elf inducted by Tac ..

well thanks a bunch for the times... ranking and hunting... it was fun.. I knew I could always count on Harlow...

helped alot when I was younger trying to retrieve and Beidal was around.. could always count on you to run in and smash him with your stick..

and if you played Brodie... Outlander/human warrior/ sword/hand?

then We interacted a bunch with another one of my outties.. Ill let you in on who when I decided to die off...


good luck bro..

I had fun running around with you and with Tahlek though the last couple of weeks we seemed to be on at different times. But the semester starts up and in spring I teach 4 different classes, all with labs so I always delete before they start just to save a little sanity.

And yeah, I was that Brodie. Tester of Death Traps.

Which reminds me, I wish the PBF recorded the number of pk attempts because while Harlow only won 5, I started maybe 20-30 others where they fled immediately upon being ambushed. At least you druids can do something to keep them around when the moon is full

Good luck on playing and have fun with the mad wood-elf druid gang.

That time at Keep of the righteous I was quite worried because I kept getting reports of the villagers closing in, but I wanted you dead. Then you managed to steal the kill on the Imperial inner just after unghosting and that was cool, unfortunately it was too late in the evening for me to hand you your marked arse . Rangers allways has had me worried though, you have some tools in your bag to really render me dead. Good luck and all that shizzle.

That was an exercise in frustration since nothing I was throwing at you seemed to hit. Though luring you into that snare was fun, after that I missed like 3 entangles, 3 or 4 serpent strikes, dirt kick, disarm, heck, your Imperial stuff avoided it all. And I had a fairly good hit/damroll before that too. I stayed just about 2 rounds too long hoping 1 good round on my side would do you in.

Again. Too much RL work coming up.

Besides trying to play the relatively cautious hunter role as a scout-explorer for a wood-elf clan, I had one main goal; hero a wood-elf ranger. For a race/class combo that is supposed to be one of the best matches, there have only been 5 heroes in the last 3 years that I could find. So I wanted to do something different and try to play to the class strengths using the ranger weaponry. In some respects playing a cautious hunter role means you don't pk much because you don't catch enough folks in the wilds and if you stay under cover you only rp with folks who can see you.

It was a fun comparison to the first ranger I ever played at CF : Truck

The normal mix of fun and frustration that occurs with any class made it an enjoyable waste of time even if I let the frustration with one particular spell spill out on the boards sometimes (which I have also retired from).

Thanks to all of you who interacted with this character and any of my other relatively recent attemps : Brodie, Tanrillinael and Harlow. I won't waste this thread with complaints, whines or bitches. I'll say it was fun and I'll miss it but I think this retirement is permanent; I'm getting too old for this kind of gaming.

If I had any parting words of wisdom they would be: it's just a freakin' game. Sometimes that's hard to remember when you've just been badly schooled in a pk, but where else can you die and lose everything and be ready to go again in 20 minutes?

Thanks to all of the Immortals, especially Amaranthe for Harlow's title and Lyseriton(sp?) for Brodie's title, they were fun perks even if neither were really forces to be reckoned with in player combat.

Enjoy yourselves,
Trouble, the Friend of Bears

Although fought some. Usually, healers cannot be offensive. There's some tweaks though but yeah, I couldn't kill you usually. Only that time which made some sort of fuss. Which is a shame.

I'll remember that time when you snared us and the villagers we were hunting. I'll remember also your dedication 'cause you'd show up and fight which is honorable. Wish we would have talked a little more but it's hard when you're hidden.

So since you plan on leaving for good, good luck with what's next for you. And do not be a stranger! Return!

Yeah, that was too bad that a little ranting from a minor frustration seemed to get blown out of proportion. Which is why I retired from posting as well, anywhere besides this thread. I should know better than to vent publicly. But enough on that, you were a force to reckon with when it came time to fight because I couldn't really do anything to you.

It is hard to interact much when playing a ranger because it gives away the element of surprise about whether I was lurking in the woods or not. Once you had me pink and healing cursed, I figured I was screwed even though it was going to take a while. You probably missed it but I was trying to get that damned dragon to breath attack and hit you to give me some room, but that didn't work too well.

Thanks and have some fun, just go pick on the Spire for a while.

Ah, sorry to see you go. For a long time I'd see Harlow plugging along and doing a good bit for the Outlanders, handling himself with a good attitude in fights (win or lose). Though when I'd snoop you I'd have a hard time seeing any revealing roleplaying. Not to suggest I ever saw anything *bad* (I didn't), but your 'strong, silent type' roleplaying and/or bad timing when I'd snoop - combined with a limited role - made it difficult for me to try to feel out what Harlow was about. Otherwise, you probably would have had a title (or something!) of some kind sooner. When a character pushes 200 hours and I'm seeing decent performance, I like to give some kind of recognition if I can. In the end I still never got a solid feel for your character, but "Storm of the Ancients" seemed like a safe enough choice once you were a hero.

Also on a side note, I had been meaning to mention it with some of your other posts, but I am thrilled to see you as a player back! I go way back with CF, and had myself a couple three Entropy characters and I remember Trouble fondly.

So I'm glad you're back and having fun. I hope the extra pressure at work is temporary and that you'll again have time to play with us.

I knew the cautious hunter role would be kind of limited because I was trying to basically do what anyone would if they were out hunting in real life; be quiet, watch your prey and then hunt when the winds were right. It's not quite as much fun as playing the loud drunken dwarf (which I did a long while ago with Gramgelli), or even just the good-natured mischevious type with Brodie, but it fit my mood at the time. The one place where I know I could've done more RP was mentoring and trying to help young wood-elves, particularly rangers. There are a lot of them rolled up and very few of them make it to 30 and fewer still to hero. It was one of those things I kept meaning to do but kept getting sidetracked by either ranking or the cabal wars. No ones fault but mine.

But the title did add a little extra perk to the character and I thank you for it. Feeling some kind of Immortal presence always makes players try harder. Even old ones like me

{Also on a side note, I had been meaning to mention it with some of your other posts, but I am thrilled to see you as a player back! I go way back with CF, and had myself a couple three Entropy characters and I remember Trouble fondly.}

I wanted to Ditto this comment. I've been around CF since one year after it started and I fondly remember Trouble as well. I know there were issues there with you, and what not. However, I'll never forget some of the interactions my young ranger had with you.

On a side note. With Wunbol, although I made him shortlived, you were a good presence to have around. I also know you had some great talent with the ranger, and seeing the "storm of the anchients" title was very fitting from what I saw. Hope things lighten up so you can come back to us with another good char.

Sorry, wouldn't have flamed you if I knew you were the NPC I've been requesting from for 7 years.

You rule.

I think I would say the same thing about raiding as someone else said. a lot of times I wondered where the heck you were, but realized you were really trying to play to your strengths. Now, this is understandable but also frustrating at times when you can find the same teleport potions as me. However, I never doubted you would give yourself for our cause. Sorry to see you go.

Blidern

It was complicated trying to play both the cautious hunter role, the chaotic Outlander and the ranger strengths/weaknesses when it came to cabal raids.

Part of it was the desire to try and do the unexpected.

Part was the very real weaknesses rangers face out of the woods and the real strength when in the woods.

And of course part of it was not running along like a lemming just because everyone else in the cabal was doing it. I did go in more than once to the Spire and the Palace alone and with others and died a couple of times when I couldn't escape to the wilds fast enough. And took the codex once out from underneath the Fortress' nose when I was almost naked..

But I can imagine it was frustrating to you and others because I wasn't doing what everyone else wanted me to, that's part of the charm of Outlander; that wonderfully chaotic mess that means sometimes you lose when you should win and sometimes you win when you should lose.

Heck, I even did things that were tactically dumb, like going into Galadon to subvert Falun's guards while he and Kasdenn were standing together and then attacking Kasdenn just for the fun of it. And not attacking them when they were ready for it. It was fun to think of Isnoohia (sp?) wasting barrier preps trying to hunt me only to have me hit when they weren't ready.

For any who really wonder, I encourage you to play a wood-elf ranger to hero to understand what they are capable of and what they aren't. They are fun if somewhat limited. I think I've said it before but I don't know of another class that gives up so much depending on where they fight, though druids are probably within shouting distance in that race.