Wed Apr 9 23:45:58 2008

At 11 o'clock AM, Day of the Bull, 15th of the Month of the Dark Shades
on the Theran calendar Hrefnwik perished, never to return.

If Maethron had not petitioned the imms about some of the problems with trappers, life would not have been very fun. Weapontrip really was all but useless, and it became very viable. The decreasing timer as you rank is a very nice incentive to get up there too.

Folks bitch about trappers sucking, but it's more just that there is too much mystery on how things really work. I know I posted some bugs that I later realized probably weren't - just a matter of knowing all the conditions.

Thank you very much for taking the time to adjust and enhance an underplayed class.

I would strongly suggest making gentle walk work in more places, particularly at high ranks. also, I'd suggest spice up some more of the ingredients - about half of all the ingredients i found did the same thing, hamper.

That said, I could never play another kind of thief. trapping is very very fun, and offers endless tactical variations.

This was my first hero in about 7 years, and only my third character in that time. Overall, he was very very fun to play. Trappers are a lot of fun (and headaches, true), svirfs make great trappers, but most of my fun came from interacting with lots of fun characters, and an overall more respectful culture than when I played ages ago.

I intended Hrefnwik to be an exploration character. Figured being forced to hunt all over the world for trap ingredients would force me to explore. And to an extent, thieves are great for exploring with. Peek, hide, and combat steal is good. Non-shoppy mobs immune to steal is just plain cruel. Gentle walk is a sham.

By the time I was spymaster, Hrefnwik had become a little more conniving, and I had fun with the approach of not letting my enemies know they were my enemies. Often I would play dumb and try to earn trust, or oops sorry about that trap it was for so-and-so. That was pretty fun. But, with this, the eastern road still grew more clear, and I had a hard time balancing my relationships and still getting to have some fun.

Moreover, my "playing conditions" changed dramatically after I got an office-mate in November and so I was more inclined to steal than fight, because it can be hard trying to flee and knife while faking a conversation about West Virginia football. Mudding at work is hazardous, and mudding at home while you hope the kids sleep is too.

I was trying to run several schemes at once, but my sporadic play-times didn't always work well with this plan.

I was trying to getting Calprecia anathema, I tried to keep Jsul out of the Village, I tried to turn Lauriel against Iltch, I tried to get Iltch killed by his enemies. Lauriel, if I knew you were gonna delete, I woulda stole that damn staff! Shenkov, I had no idea what I was going to do with that info, or an item if I found it, but it wasn't necessarily going to be in your interest. Generally, I'd get in the middle of cabal wars and profit with gold, items, or info from both. God, this was complicated.

When the harpy queen came and I found that I couldn't lay a trap because I was working some relationship with almost everyone there I realized that I'd gotten in too deep.

Anyway, I realize that I had limited interactions with most of you, because Hrefnwik was spread so thin over such a long period. Still, many folks made a strong impression on me.

Adina, Patick, Gromm, Vergat, Maxwell, Sulerias - you were the few I could probably claim to be friends. A few others Hrefnwik just really liked and stopped scheming against: Igbah- you rocked, because I think you knew that'd I'd stolen from you and set you up a couple times, but you played the oblivious evil giant anyway. Ms. Zerislov, I was ready to start working with the Empire because of you. Inglor and Grecken, you guys know your ####, and Href benefitted from that. Angaarn, you can return what you owe me to Flixxan.

Yevandr, I thought I'd test the waters of getting into the village, but think you either weren't about evangelizing your beliefs or just didn't want to go there with me.

A few other folks I appreciated interacting with: Demtok, Satebos, Clissa, Reniste, Feinlinal, Llorenz, Linaerien, Krengrar... you outlived me!

To my owls and foxes, I appreciated being kept on my toes, and had fun playing chase. Throkk, Dizari, Jhuutr I appreciated as well. I think that's it for my active enemies, and about sums things up.

I regret not being more decisive or more ass-holish - to succeed as a thief, you really can't worry about pissing people off. I also wish I could have multi-tasked better. There's no reason you can't lay traps and wait for folks while talking to all your contacts, but I couldn't handle it. Just like I can't talk to my wife and do dishes at the same time.

Imms, the game is head and shoulders above where it was long ago. It's just harder.

This will be my last character for some time. It got me through a lot of stress last year, and likewise all that *time* cost me a lot personally.

Oh, Sybea! I'm proud of you for reading this far :p. Basically, if I hadn't met you, I'd probably have deleted and rolled a binder.

So, that trap you set that immolated (and eventually killed) me during the Harpy Queen attack- was that really an accident?

No, I think was trying to lead Dizari after me. Also, for a mob to hit a burst trap, you have to be standing right at the trap. There are a lot of little quirks about traps like that I couldn't keep straight. But even still, the Harpy didn't trigger the glowing one I was standing at.

<831hp 96% 98% 24350tnl 4 PM wilderness> You deftly begin setting a trap for the next person entering this place.
As you finish the setting, you gently dangle a bladder filled with iridescent powder!
Ahh, perfection...
Anyone who springs the trap will cover the area in the powder and make everything visible to all!

<831hp 96% 98% 24350tnl 4 PM wilderness>
A dire wolf leaves west.

<831hp 96% 98% 24350tnl 4 PM wilderness>
The Queen of the Harpies has arrived.

<831hp 96% 98% 24350tnl 4 PM wilderness> You deftly begin setting a trap for the next person entering this place.
As you finish the setting, you gently dangle a bladder filled with iridescent powder!
Ahh, perfection...
Anyone who springs the trap will cover the area in the powder and make everything visible to all!

<831hp 96% 98% 24350tnl 4 PM wilderness>
A dire wolf leaves west.

<831hp 96% 98% 24350tnl 4 PM wilderness>
The Queen of the Harpies has arrived.

<831hp 96% 98% 24350tnl 4 PM wilderness>
---

*shakes fist* And so I was left out of the party!!

I liked you for the most part. We had some scuffles early on, but Zridv was of the opinion that having thief enemies wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to rule from the shadows, and scare the pants off people. Having thieves bringing him out of the shadows wouldn't have helped that. All in all, I thought you were great.

aww sad to see you finally go, i was tempted to try to rp with you when i was draven but i just got caught up at becomming a tribby, as patick i liked you alot and was saddened a bit when we kind of had a drop out. the early adventures with you xhirathos and i were very fun. good luck with your next.

Did we have a drop out? Oh well, I was rarely around in December, and that's I think when I lost you and Sybea. When I saw that she'd deleted I actually deleted, but then restored.

The hardest thing about being uncaballed is you don't instantly have a few people to go do things with when you log in, even if you don't know them - they are in your cabal and (in most cases) on your side.

It was nice seeing you and being able to strike up a conversation and get into some trouble together.

And here I was, holding onto that book for you!

That time I stumbled into your trap, were you playing with me as well?

Too bad I never saw you after our first talk.

Heh, no, that time you screwed up a kill for me! There were other times however I often saw you, but you weren't wearing anything nice and didn't want to make an enemy for nothing

Glad to see my gearing strategies are working.

See you in the fields.

Was always nice seeing you poke your head up every once in a while.

Take care