Update Notes – April 2002 – Betrayal
She wore her fatigue as a thick and heavy cloak draped over her mind. It helped protect her from the terror threatening to overwhelm her. And when the fatigue was not enough to stop her from thinking about the events of the last few months, she turned to anger. The incandescent flame of rage burned away any shreds of panic that managed to break through the dull layers of sleeplessness.
Betrayal. Betrayal at every turn. Betrayed by Asheron, who brought her to this strange land. Betrayed by Thorsten as his lifespark vanished on the end of that demon’s pincer. And now betrayed by Nuhmudira, next to Asheron her closest advisor.
Her land was under siege. Elemental attacks rising. New and powerful golems appearing in the Direlands. New enemy fortifications. And now, the time when she needed sage counsel the most, she was alone. Asheron had been gone for the last few weeks. He had been disappearing more and more recently. Thorsten was gone forever. And Nuhmudira. . .
She had completely vanished. Elysa had trouble believing the rumors Jaleh had passed to her about Nuhmudira. No, her rage would not allow her to harbor any illusion. She did not want to believe the rumors. But that had nothing to do with the truth. Oh, Nuhmudira, what have you done?
Could she trust no one? Even Borelean, her pride and joy (my son, the monster tried to kill my son. I will see you dead, Martine. I will scatter your ashes to the four corners of the world. . .), was too young to help. She could not rely on even him.
The storm that Nuhmudira had warned her about so many months ago had come. It could soon rage in full force. And in what shape was Elysa to meet the challenge? Exhausted. Furious. Alone. She thought back to an earlier time, a time of nightmares and blood. There, deep in the dank stinking lair of the Olthoi Queen, she had seen her compatriots and love slaughtered by a loathsome monstrosity. She remembered the brutal hammering force of grief and despair, and the bright shining rage that, for that moment, cleansed the despair from her soul. As she had drawn back the arrow that pierced the glistening, faceted insectoid orb straight through to its abominable brain, she had felt nothing but a calm, soothing vengeance.
Standing in her stone chambers, dust dancing through sunlit air, that feeling once more washed through her. Exhaustion and rage were both replaced by a cool sense of. . . anticipation. Deep within her mind, she was readying her arrows, sharp and deadly. When a guard rushed in to inform her of the latest events, he was surprised to see her smiling.
“Kai,” Nuhmudira’s voice cracked as she raised it above the whistling wind. Her red hair and dark skin showed in harsh opposition to the snow-capped mountain they climbed. “How much further?”
Kai, wearing the green leathers of a peasant, turned to his master and pointed to a clearing. There a large head rested, its maw gaping wide, beckoning them to enter.
“The library lies within, Master.” He turned and entered.
Nuhmudira pulled her robes more tightly about her. Ibn Rab’s blood still strengthened her body, but the chill was enough to make the strongest of people shiver. A warm glow shone within the head, and the soft purple glow of one of the many portals could be seen at the foot of a flight of stairs that lead into an Empyrean foyer. Her reward for teaching this upstart was close, so close.
She followed Kai inside.
Spring is arriving in Dereth, the snow steadily retreating from its warm embrace. It is said that one may find sunflowers in certain meadows. And other places report the appearance of plants that have not been seen in Dereth in many months. Yet, the warm sunshine and mild weather cannot completely dispel an uneasy chill of anticipation.
A brother searches for his older sister, seeking clues in a written trail of loss and grief.
The skies are clear of winter snow, the air gentle. The sun glints off the bronze statues that grace the towns, warming the rich metal. But for one errant day, the statues have been faithful in gifting protections to the people. The Arcanum will still not admit to providing the statues to the towns but the value of such gifts cannot be disputed.
Somewhere, Martine writhes in incandescent madness, muttering words of vengeance and machination.
The Arcanum, which has been striving steadily to provide more settlement housing, has added more Cottages and Villas and portals to most of those placed in the previous month. They have also taken a new and ambitious approach–they have constructed and opened Residential Quarters, which provide communal defense for large numbers of Isparians. “Safety in numbers,“ is an ancient, oft-recited saying that all Isparians know, from the smallest child to the highest king. Its truth cannot be disputed. Within these quarters Isparians may live, laugh, make plans, all the while secure from the denizens that roam the land.
Nuhmudira had disappeared. Her whereabouts are still unknown.
Spring is a season of hope and as a symbol of this High Queen Elysa has declared that Weddings may once again take place in the land. All citizens of Dereth who wish to show their commitment to a beloved one through the vows of marriage may do so, be it in a sunrise-lit outdoor chapel or the faithful old Wedding Hall.
Mages skilled in Item Magic are finding they now have two additional Tie spells to add to their art. All Isparians have been granted a means to travel to a selected Lifestone without first paying the penalty of death, albeit with a loss of mana.
The mild weather softens the land. The sunshine warms upturned faces. And everyone tries to ignore the shadows looming in the distance.
Highlights include:
- Endurance is now a useful attribute for almost all adventurers, be they warrior, archer, or mage. Benefits include faster regeneration rates, resistance to drains and damage, and more!
- New portal spells allow players to travel farther and wider in their search for adventure! And once the province of only a select few, now all players with Item Magic can recall through their last visited portal. Also, all players, regardless of whether they have Item Magic or not, can recall to a Lifestone at any time.
- Residential Quarters have opened! Now you have an opportunity to find a space to call your own. Recall to your home, store your items, and even display a few choice possessions! With thousands of rooms opening up each month, soon every player will have access to these great features!
- Celebrate the spring with a wedding! Now you and your loved one can be joined in matrimonial bliss. Conquer Jealousy, Greed, and Anger, and you and your potential mate can live happily ever after.
New Functionality and Content
- A few new dungeons and quests.
- Wedding bells are ringing, flowers and plants are blooming.
- A new boss creature roams the Dires.
- There are a number of new portal spells available now to players. See the April Letter to the Players for more details.
- The functionality of @lifestone has now been changed such that it no longer kills you and leaves a corpse, but instead returns you to your Lifestone. This animation takes roughly 15 seconds, and spends half of your current mana. It is available to all players at all levels.
- A new command, @die, has the same functionality as the old @lifestone command, so that one may choose to die at any point, leaving a corpse.
- There have been a number of changes to the way Endurance functions in AC. See the April Letter to the Players for more details.
- There is a new Panel, the Character Information Panel, which takes over the former Burden Panel. The icon for the panel remains the same, but it is now a dark brown color when the character is not overburdened. This new Panel relates: @age, @birth, @deaths info, the new Endurance info, and the burden info (when applicable).
- A new form of housing, Residential Quarters, is now available. See the April Letter to the Players for more details.
- There is a new command, @allegiance boot <name of offending player> usable only by the monarch of an allegiance. This command allows a monarch to kick out a player from any level within the monarch’s allegiance. This works regardless of whether the character is online.
- There is now a new option in the Character Panel that allows the act of dragging an item to another player to open up the Secure Trade panel with that player. This option is off by default (meaning that the old behavior of: dragging an item to a player gives the item to that player, still applies).
- Trying to “use” (double-clicking) another player now results in the Secure Trade Panel being opened up with that player.
Miscellaneous Improvements and Changes
- 150 Cottages and 50 Villas have been added to the world.
- 1,000 Residential Quarters have been added to the world.
- House Settlement Portals for those settlements added in March have been added to the world.
- Along with the portal magic changes, there are now only three types of portals in the world: Summonable and Recallable; Recallable and Not-summonable; Non-recallable and Non-summonable. A portal that is tie-able is now automatically recallable. Tie-able and recallable are now synonymous terms.
- Also, any time you cast portal recall, you become subject to the restrictions placed upon the original portal that was tied to. For example, if a player ties to a portal which was only accessible by levels 1-20, and the player then becomes level 21, that player will no longer be able to recall through or summon that portal.
- The Society Explorer quests have undergone a minor face lift: The agents give you more information about the quests in the outpost towns, all dungeons associated with quests are now restricted up to level 20 (in some cases they had been restricted to level 6), some of the spawn timers on the quest items have been reduced to the proper level (roughly 30 seconds), and the rewards are overall greater for the quests.
- It is now possible to imbue current versions of the Hollow Sword, Axe, Spear, and Mace, to craft slightly better versions.
- There was a bug in our download system which sometimes required players to download the patch twice or in the worst cases required a complete download of a new portal.dat file. We believe we have fixed this bug.
- The Dark Myrmidion (the creature that carries the Bone Mace), has had its armor value and regeneration rate lowered.
- We changed the numbers on how much ammo, pyreals, and components spawn when they appears through the treasure system. Players should expect to find higher amounts (the spawn rate has not changed, just the amount that spawns) at nearly all levels of the treasure system.
- Dual-spell jewelry now has a chance of spawning at virtually all levels of treasure.
- You must now use Victual Infusions on Health and Mana Draughts, not Health and Mana Infusions, in order to create Health and Mana Potions.
- Hooks that have been turned “invisible” by house owners are now no longer selectable with the keyboard select keys. Turning them visible will allow them to be selected again.
- We fixed a number of client crashing bugs caused by trying to inscribe various items under certain conditions.
- Olthoi Mounds in dungeons are now ethereal, and cannot be perched upon.
- There have been some slight changes to the Olthoi Queen quest.
- The Hea Raider’s Cache can now only be opened by a key.
- The six villas in the Last-Stop-Before-Dires settlement have had their villa portals to their dungeons fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience.
- Last month (March), we changed some of the dynamics of the Queen Quest such that the broadcasts triggered by the Quest are local broadcasts instead of global broadcasts.
- The amount of treasure a Singularity Trove contains has generally been increased.
Minor Details
- The summon/recall/tie/ls spells now have slightly different icons.
- The Training and Academy Cestuses now do bludgeoning damage.
- There was a bug that caused the scrollbar in the Character Options Panel to not function correctly. This has been fixed now.
- The weight of the starter crossbow and starter nabut have been reduced to 10. The poor Wayfarer (and especially the Gharu’n Wayfarer) will no longer start life with over 100% burden.
- The Crystal Golem now can no longer fizzle its spells.
- Shadow Dye Vendors now buy back dyes (although at a drastically reduced cost).