Here are some more images from the castle construction site, including some of the mysterious Nylar.
Odesseus sent the following report to TMN:
Seems work on the castle has picked up! Lots of workers are bustling about, doing stuff building-like. There appears to be another entrance being constructed to the east, as well. They were a bit rude and jostled me, and I had to remind them I was the Fen president. I thought I heard someone snickering! A couple of workers appear to be clearing rock and yell at you if you go too close. More rudeness! There also seems to be some mystery afoot. A couple of workers were talking together in hushed whispers about something.
Anyway, it's very heartening to see something that the Castle Alliance started long ago now taking shape.
Cheers!
-Odesseus
Your Fen President
Construction to fill in the giant hole east of Puddleby has apparently stopped. Fripp the Dwarf is nowhere to be seen. Has this project come to an incomplete end?
The extended walls at the entrance to the Town Center garden and sometime Zoo are now gone.
Chaos Storm #539 has swept the Lok'Groton island chain. Please post any changes you have observed and wish to share with others in the comments. If you don't want to read possible spoilers, please do not read the comments.
Update from Delta Tao:
• v539 is apparently prone to crashing. We are investigating the problem and will fix it as soon as possible. In the meantime, please be aware that it may crash at any moment. Thanks for your understanding.
Update from Para, 3/28/08, 8:05 PDT:
Seems stable now; awaiting further word.
Update from Delta Tao:
• We think we have the server crashes fixed. Thanks for your patience.
Raul reports in his most recent journal entry on a busy day hunting.
Gloria has updated her journal with reports on becoming a healer and recent adventures on Metzetli Island and with lava in Puddleby.
Hunter reports at OWE News on a passage through the Ethereal Plane that did not go exactly as planned.
Delta Tao reports:
• The v539 update has been postponed until Thursday, March 27, because Ann is sick. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Salandra sent the following report to TMN:
Hello Paramedic,
I would just like to report in on the latest successful Full Moon Orga Camp Raid!
Of course you can see in this sketch that a fine group of exiles joined me in support of taking yet another stone away from the Orga. I'd like to thank all of them for coming out and supporting me on this raid. Without these folks, I wouldn't be able to use this stone to help out the fallens around town and support the groups that are battling in the toughest areas of our lands.
-Salandra
Hunter has updated OWE News with entries on an expedition to Book 2 and the Zoo/Stone Cold controversy.
Special thanks to all those who have submitted new material over the past week or so. It's great to have a lot of material to post. I still have a couple to process and post. I always look forward to getting submissions.
I'd like to post some new interviews with exiles. I need some volunteer interviewers. If you're interested in helping with this project, please let me know.
It's time to pay some TMN-related bills, so please consider donating a few bucks with the PayPal link if you enjoy the site.
Thanks, everyone, for continuing to read and help out with TMN!
-Para
Illora Mona has announced via Koppi:
Lundi, the 63rd Day of Spring 570, at 9:32 PM
(Saturday, March 22nd, at 9am Pacific)
I am offering a beginning Healing course for new healers, starting with a short lecture on surviving (sharing, toggling, healing, running away), then moving on to a panel of advanced healers who have agreed to share their knowledge. Galadriel, Lorikeet, Revelor, Suu'ub III, and Xenos will be available to answer questions both general and specific. The class will be held in the healer classroom of the Puddleby University, just east and south from east field south.
The class will be geared towards first and second circle healers, higher circle healers are welcome to attend but risk boredom by doing so.
Further discussion on the Clan Lord Sentinel.
J'nder sent the following report to TMN:
Hi Para,
Here's a couple of sketches I made during the quiet bits of the noid invasion recently. I think the noids first appeared in East field. Hunk and I headed to East field. There were various kinds of noids including web throwers, and a new kind to me: "Curious Noids."
Together with the exiles that were already defending East Field, we fought the noids, several times having to retreat to east town to heal our fallen.
Pushing on in East Forest, we found strangely strong Emerald Noids guarding the snell exits. They were difficult to defeat, but very rewarding, as their mandibles fetched a high price (over 300 coins for one set). Again, we were beaten back time after time, and only thanks to the excellent skills of the fighters, chainers, and Lorikeet's Horus were we able to prevail.
Eventually we entered the Noids Cavern and more exile reinforcements arrived. Here we were set up upon by "Hairy Noids" and Recluse Arachne, as well as Albino Noids. Several exiles, including myself, were fallen for hours until being rescued. As the noids were defeated one by one we were able to surround the "Deathtrap Web Thrower" (I think it was so called) and vanquish it.
-J'nder
Creed sent the following report to TMN:
Hail Para!
I have a few sketches to show you and your loyal readers today. These are just some random reports of fun or funny events around Puddleby.
I was present for a very heroic rescue of a group of Valley fallens by Lister. Even though this sketch seems to show Lister in serious trouble, he actually got out of the situation and chained all the fallens home successfully!
Peril provided me with a sketch of Janus showing several exiles what he's been busy with for the last few moons.
Some recent orga activity led numerous exiles, including Chance, on an expedition into the Orga Camps. On the way, they ran across yet another new species of orga, called the Fearless. At least two, possibly three of these were killed outside OC1.
Upon entering OC1, which was very hot with lightning of all kinds, the large group of exiles ran into an old acquaintance: Grefo Topper. He told the group that he had been hiding in the forest for a long while after being displaced by Fergar Egley, the green pants seller. Many elements of his story seemed suspect, but he did recognize a few of the older exiles, including Althea.
Grefo ended up confronting Fergar, and the two had an interesting "discussion" about who was a better merchant for the people of Puddleby. Grefo tried to gain the exiles' favor by selling several of them rare forest green shirts (for very large sums of money). Unfortunately, Chance had to leave at that point, and she has not told me the end of the story . . . perhaps some other "reporters" could.
Last but not least . . . we all know that Kahn St'ple is not exactly the most alert security guard in the lands, but catching her standing up sound asleep in the middle of town is just a bit ridiculous.
Cheers!
-Creed
MaryJane sent the following Purple Haze Press Release to TMN:
Sometime in year 568 (around RL November 2007) mystics began receiving cryptic, enciphered messages from Tenebrion. In Winter of 569 (RL November 18, 2007) Purple Haze discovered a method to decode these messages and realized that each message received is a component of a longer message. Since then, Purple Haze has been gathering these messages in an attempt to decode them and assemble the complete message.
So far, we have gathered and decoded over a dozen unique messages. The messages, as a whole, seem to be a retelling of the creation myth, although with several additions to the narrative that are not yet clear. Why Tenebrion would tell us such a story while fallen in the Annulus also still eludes us.
We have learned a few things, though. For one, no special training is necessary for a mystic to receive a message, although reception of a message can be draining to a mystic's mental energy. Secondly, we are certain that the mystic must be wearing an Ethereal Amulet in order to receive a message. If Tenebrion attempts to send a message to a mystic not currently wearing an amulet, that mystic will merely feel the presence of Tenebrion in his or her mind.
While the complete message is still fragmented, we have assembled what appear to be two complete sentences:
"Twelve of them remained when the rest were hung in the heavens as stars."
"The daughters he named Ash, Mirvi, Jaloh, Badosmi, Pelma and Tanjah."
Purple Haze would like to take this opportunity to deeply thank those who have relayed messages that they have heard to us. Without you, we would not be this far.
Extrapolating from the messages we have now, we are most likely missing around ten of the messages. In all likelihood other mystics have received messages, but either do not know about our efforts or simply refuse to share them with Purple Haze on philosophical grounds. It is the opinion of Purple Haze that these messages do not constitute a mystic secret, as they are of interest to all of Puddleby. It is in this spirit, and in the hope of future collaboration, that we disclose this information to Puddleby.
Further discussion on the Clan Lord Sentinel.
Measle has two new journal entries:
V'ree sent the following report to TMN:
Hello there,
There were some interesting things happening in town the other day, but it looks like the news never got to TMN. While sitting in town, there were sunstones from some Refareus fellow, who started posting bounties on certain creatures for people to bring to the town Zoo. Quickly, the Zoo grew and grew to quite a sight. The extra fence you see at the zoo was set up by Refareus in order to keep the zoo better contained. Perhaps it will encourage more zoos to be created! There were even some rare creatures like a fire bubble (who knows how it got there!), a megamouth (landshark?), and a starbuck (which must've been hard to chase in there). The crowning jewel was a Crimson Arachnoid, brought by Kalian and Natas.
Things eventually got out of hand and the Crimson had to be put down. Also, Stone Cold started killing some of the creatures in the Zoo, leading to a trial where he was convicted and sentenced to a decent amount of jail time. Pies may also have been used as punishment. Stone Cold also challenged Natas to a duel, which he gladly accepted. Unfortunately I could not be there for the execution!
All in all it was good fun, hopefully there will be more zoos to be had in the future.
-V'ree
Inu Teisei sent the following report to TMN:
The first ever Brew & Brawl (BnB) was a smashing success. So smashing that we even had killer zu and beer try to crash it! A visionstone can be found here.
OOC: It is zipped up. It was created on a Windows machine.
Watch for our next Brew & Brawl next season! Check the calendar for the dates!
OOC: It is Sunday, April 13th at 5pm EDT. Clan hunt starts at 4pm EDT.
I am buying hops and yeast in preparation for the next one.
-Inu Teisei
Curdsonway sent the following report to TMN:
I was cleaning out my closet the other day and I found a sketch I made many years ago. Your subscribers might be interested in a peek into the far past of Puddleby.
-Curdsonway
Odesseus sent the following report to TMN:
Hi Para,
Seems the Governor has extended the walls to the entrance to his lawn. No idea why. Attached is a sketch of it.
-Odes, Fen President
I investigated myself (see above). I wonder how this will affect the occasional use of this area as Puddleby's zoo?
-Para
Yikes sent the following report to TMN:
Hello.
Fripp the Dwarf says that progress is being made at filling in the big hole east of Puddleby. How much longer will we have to put up with this giant hazard to public safety?
-Yikes
Previously:
Now:
Connie Crete sent the following report to TMN:
Beer!
Well this were off tha beaten path fer me. I were off huntin (normal stuff) and Smok comes over tha sunstone and challenges me ta a duel. Now me, I generally dont participate in that stuff as there be no coin ta be made, but well, Smok be a 'special' zo so I said I'd humor him after tha mosey.
I picked tha time - after tha mosey ends. Smok picked tha place - tha badlands. Turns out, we had a couple o hours o night left, so it were good timin fer Smok. Anyways, V'ree and Wangah and Hunner came ta officiate and make sure there warnt no cheatin goin on.
Initially, I figgured Smok were blowin smoke and didnt expect me ta take him up, so I gived him tha chance ta back out. Instead we went and gotted jerseys. He wanned red fer blood and chaos. I wanned yella fer beer.
We gits set and Wangah bein tha observationaltype mystic he be, kept findin stuff ta slip unobtrusivelike inta his pocket. I'll admit I tipped him and V'ree fer their time initiallike, but Ima guessin he were findin mystic stuff also ta pick up. Ya knows . . . like that 'thing' we allays searches tha savannah fer.
Round 1 starts. Smok wiffs and wiffs and wiffs. Finally he starts gitn good hits. 'bout tha time Ima down ta 30% o my health, I picks up tha ugba. I waits and bides and waits and then like last call, downs him inna instant befer I falls myself. Lucky fer me tha ugba has tha bonus when drunked.
So Smok thinkin it be a fluke wants ta go fer 2 outta 3. Now we all know Ima lil 2• dorf. He gits all perpared like. He does sumthin sumthin with his sword o souls. I dunno... is shiney and it screams. And we starts. Agin with tha wiff wiff wiffin. Then he pops over ta Wangah and kin hit. In fact, he accidentally hit tha wrong person. Oh well, is a mystic's lot ta court danger. Well, he were wiffin so much, I started doin a bit o tha trash talkin. I figgured he could start with tha vermines and work up ta me. That sure got him riled up causn then he could hit. Blam Blam Blam. Agin, at 25-30%, I picks up tha ugba. I waits and bides and BLAM! Round 2.
Durin tha waitn and yawnin part, I pushed him about with tha shieldstone. Natas Pong be gonna be not so very easy. Ima still workin on tha rules with Manqy, but there's gotta be possibilities fer multiple raisin. Hmmm . . . that should benefit tha bursters and tha faustusers. Now ta figgure out how other folks kin work in tha teams.
Beer!
-Connie
Has Super Chicken gone /b/ad? And is he worth the handful of coins you get from a slaughter?
TYP sent the following report to TMN:
Dear Para:
My sister Potz has told me that she was under attack of 2 "Super Chickens," she quickly slaughtered both of them, and one of them gave 3 coins . . .
Not so sure what is going on here . . . maybe we can have a chicken farm for coins?
-TYP
Chaos Storm #536 has swept the Lok'Groton island chain. Please post any changes you have observed and wish to share with others in the comments. If you don't want to read possible spoilers, please do not read the comments.