------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .. .. .||. ||.. ... || || || ||.|| `|.. || || `|.. ..|'''.| '|| || '|| '|' ' .... . .... ..||.. ... ..., || .... || '' .|| || || || || .| ' || .|...|| '|. | .|' || || || || || || || || ''|...'| '|..'|' ||. ||. '|..' .||. '|..| ||. '|...' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 1 Coin --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings, dear readers, and welcome to a new issue of the Canticle. Thaddeus is still missing, but I have received a clue about the messenger he met before disappearing, and will be going to follow up on it. In the meanwhile, the remaining Canticle staff will arrange for the paper to go to print. In this issue, Scarecrazy and Bazhi are interviewed, and Dubanka tells a story about his earlier years. We also present entrepreneurship in the renovated Nepeth, report on activity in the far south and present poetry. Many thanks to Tarott, Lorien, Theryn, Scarecrazy, Dubanka, Bazhi, Scarecrazy, Tlachtgae, Sylwen, Alisyia, Gary, Otter, Levek and Barbarian for their input in the paper, and special thanks to Quita for help with sneaking a reporter into the Retreat when they stood beating the gates in vain. Enjoy the new issue! Fir Acting Editor The Canticle In the interests of getting the truth out, we have appended in pre-print a non-censored interview exposing Fir's heavy-handed methods! Free the press! Erin and Lorien --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <*> CANTICLE INDEX <*> -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- An Orderly Retreat.................2 Meet Prince Bazhi.................10 Power Struggles....................2 Poetry Corner'd...................11 Lullingstone Bridge Guarded........3 Innovative Training: Coin Tag.....13 See Me In A Bottle.................3 Meet Fey Scarecrazy...............14 Local News: Nepeth Entrepreneurs...4 Expose: Interview With Fir........16 The Ancient But Mobile Anguish.....6 Lawstorming.......................18 Dubanka: The Early Years...........8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- An Orderly Retreat We paid a visit to the Knights' Retreat, working undercover since we failed to recruit any high-ranking officers for the task. It was a thrilling visit, not any less so from the tendency of the locals to greet people with a nice slap on the shoulder, which we without fail first interpreted as our cover having been blown and expected a "You're coming with me!" to follow. Marquis Jush is a busy man, but he agreed to tell us a bit about the place anyway. King Drin opened the place for the relaxation of noble officers, and currently it houses a handful of Knights. After we were politely driven outside again, we had a talk with Allain, the Senior Knight of the Rose. Despite his humble background, he has reached his relatively high position by hard work and devotion. His enthusiasm was catching, even made us consider joining the Knights. The only person apparently not getting along well with him was Earl Yarbreaux. We did not quite find out what caused the friction between the two Knights, as the Earl was considerably more interested in offering us advice on war tactics than discussing the matter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Power Struggles In The Geographic Society It would seem that Ewani's approach to "recruiting by growling" is surprisingly effective, as the Black Bear guild has become prominent in both the number of players and the position in the Geographic Society. We asked Levek, a long-time Bear, for his view on the matter. He agreed to that the Bear population has gone up, but suspected it had many reasons. While knapsacks lured some new opportunistic members, also other people have found solace in the shamanistic guild. From Scythe, Barbarian estimated that his guild's decline in Geo has been caused by a combination of the Bear activity and cooperation, and some Scythe members migrating elsewhere. The ones remaining have grown less interested in keeping up the the guild's reputation in the Society. Some have even defected to the competitor side to upkeep their knapsack habit. Barbarian estimated the most dominant guild of the Society overall to be the "black horse", Eldar, as a group of active tree-huggers getting serious about claiming would soon convince everyone that resisting would be futile. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lullingstone Bridge Guarded By Scythe The Scythe has set up a guard post to stop any elvish and Knight traffic over the Lullingstone river southwest of Tantallon. This has not caused much distress for the residents, as the troops left in charge of the camp seem to be rather sorry excuses for Scythe warriors. Talk has it that the feared Glock the Massacrator, a battle veteran with the tactical skills to give the Knights of Drin and the Elven Defence Force a fierce headache for years now, cannot have been serious to populate the camp with such incompetent guards. By the analysis of the honourable Earl Yarbreaux, the entire operation simply has to be a fool's errand, while the main force of Scythe is directed at another target altogether. Our undercover reporters have found tentative evidence that the errand probably does relieve the camp of some workforce which is best kept as far away from real business as possible. We will investigate the matter further. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- See Me In A Bottle As we travelled in the south, we met with Kezziah, the glass blower. She was busy finishing an order for the Golden Ducat in Tantallon, but agreed to tell us a bit about her work nevertheless. Kezziah provides bottles for the bars in most main villages. She describes her profession as hard work, especially since she has been running the shop alone after the death of her father, also a master glass blower. The job involves some travelling, and she especially likes the delivery trips that take her to visit her cousin in the north. Otherwise, she is not interested in moving away from Drakhiya despite her different cultural heritage, as the finest sand and therefore her job remains in the far south. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Local news: Nepeth Entrepreneurs After the Nepeth renovation, the town has been bustling with commerce. We introduce some of the shopkeepers in support of King Drin's program to boost Nepeth commerce. Morag runs the Nepeth Sweet Shop on Merchants Row. Having lived most of her life in Nepeth, she states she knows almost everyone in the town. She eagerly advertises her daughter's flower shop in the marketplace, and admits to being very impressed by the Castle of Nepeth, which can easily be seen almost anywhere from Nepeth. She is very fond of her work: "I love working in the sweetshop. It's my life." In the Nepeth lottery hall, near the west end of Merchants Row, we find a man named Patches selling tickets. He advertises the current pot to be as much as 31820 coins! While he is not very interested in discussing personal matters in general, he is proud to have been appointed in his current job by Prince Gilbert himself. The Prince has instituted the lottery to raise funds for improvements. Manni, brother of Shanni, has recently moved into Nepeth to put up his own potion shop on Knights Road. This earnest man aims to take potion selling away from its old "cranky crone" image and to build a whole new concept around the business. Shanni was unwilling to comment on this new development, mumbling about aching limbs as she passed. The new potions do seem rather potent, and we wish the best of luck to Manni in his business. * . ' + ___ @ . Feeling lucky? .-" __"-. + * /:.'`__`'.\ ' Buy a lottery ticket! If you win, you . |:: .'_ `. :| * gain easy money, and if you don't, you @ |:: '._' : :| . are supporting important projects such + \:'.__.' :/ ' as the upkeep of important roads and the /`-...-'\ ' + planned extension to the Nepeth Castle! ' jgs / \ . @ The lottery hall can be found in Nepeth, * `-.,___,.-' on Merchants Row. Local News continued on page 5 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Local News, continued from page 4 ... Garomia, the owner of the flower shop on Royal Street, is a charming half-elf girl who immediately stunned our reportership by her extensive knowledge on the symbolic value of different flowers. Vygie, the delivery girl, is somewhat more shy, but her deliveries are fast as lightning. When asked about whether there are any difficulties in running the business, Garomia tensed visibly, but did not wish to elaborate on what she called the mundane challenges of flower-selling. Trent runs a pet shop on the eastern part of Royal Street. This retired falconer is obviously very fond of the animals in his care. We even got detailed instructions on how to care for a pet rock, which is the perfect companion for a busy reporter. The town butcher, located on the other side of the street from Trent's, is a man of few words. He sells sausages, and ensures us that "They're good stuff," and definitely will not make people sick. Having been stuffed with a fair dose of sweets earlier in the day, we were forced to decline. The Ancient Inn offers rooms at very reasonable prices, and advertises itself fit even for the most famous of sages. The bar serves a decent drink, and Pipit the singing bard is more than willing to perform samples of his fine repertoire of both drinking songs and love songs for a price. Just the thing to take your date to! We realise we forgot to ask Pipit what made him decide to become a bard, since we were too busy getting thoroughly charmed. Better luck next time... _.-.-._ Garomia's Horticultural Haven _.-.-._ (_\_|_/_) (_\_|_/_) (__>(@)<__) We have a wide assortment of fragrant, (__>(@)<__) (_/^|^\_) beautiful flowers - a nice present for (_/^|^\_) /\_ ,#'-'-' that special someone. Each flower comes '-'-'#, _/\ \_ \ # with a card to convey your important `# / _/ \_\|#, _/| message. We will also advise you on |\_ ,#|/_/ '#|/ / choosing the right flower for it and \ \|#' |\ '#-/ offer reasonably-priced delivery. `-#' /| _\ | #_/\ You can find us by the Ancient Inn, /\_# | /_ \__,#|._/ on Royal Street of Nepeth. \_.|#,__/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ancient But Mobile Anguish To respond to changing tides, Ancient Anguish needed a move from Inreach, our home of eight and half years. Jerusulum researched a number of hosting options, and found Locallink. Bytre coordinated the purchase of new hardware and shipping it to our new location, organising the other administrative details with Jerusulum. Paldin worked on the new machine, changing our operating system with Bytre, debugging the driver, restoring backups and a ton of other work. After the move, he brought the FTP server and the testmud back online. When the new machine reached Locallink and we made sure it was working, we took one final backup from the Inreach mud and transferred it to the new site over a 1.5-2 hour reboot. When the mud came back up, we were in Anarchy Mode. During Anarchy Mode, no rules applied (although the wizards had a couple). Player killing, multiplaying, triggers, stacks, etc were all legal. Anarchy Mode was a great deal of fun for everyone who participated. It had some areas that could have been improved, but overall it was fantastic. I personally had a great deal of fun running free purges (everyone needed them after Jerusulum spammed Tantallon with potions!). The 'tell theryn EXP!' service was interesting, too. I've never been so spammed! Random Senate members kept running the healer for everyone, and that was usually followed by a number of deaths. Speaking of deaths, I lost track of the number of player kills, but Machine and Hydro were a very close first and second place while I was online. The wizards weren't allowed in at first, to give the mortals time to mess around by themselves. When they came in, things became very interesting. Uniques started popping up everywhere, potions materialised, every man and his dog had a dozen hunga-mungas, and a few players had too many class objects. Bytre applied itching powder and made all the residents of Tantallon go mad. To match the madness in the main village, there were a million Shannis and frogs flooding the mud. Mobile Anguish continued on page 7 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mobile Anguish, continued from page 6 ... The first player kill took a while. That might be because every NPC in the game was suddenly a hard-hitting, aggressive, following maniac bent on the destruction of every player. After a few hours, teams of Drudges were spotted in Tantallon, and there were reports of Jush and Ceranyx reading the boards in the Adventurer's Guild. Much merriment ensued when Gaius chased a player into the inn, struck a fatal blow, and proceeded to loot the corpse. The highest killed NPCs (in no particular order) seemed to be: Drudge, Gaius, Namril, Ewani, Growle, Boki, Decker, Papergirl and Drin. Dubanka and Malire helped with various tasks and with the anarchy fun, although Malire was happily ignoring the expanding law logs. Brog loved anarchy. He was bountying anyone from Guest to a Senator, for any reason that popped into his head. Meanwhile, on the new machine, Paldin was busily restoring the backup. A few wizards eventually migrated over to the new machine and started testing the mud, to make sure everything worked before the anguish.org address starting sending mortals there. Thanks to Bytre for coordinating this and to Llanfear, Fir, Lungarrii, Kasmune, Mendebar and other wizards and mortals for testing! Thanks also to Arpeggio for picking up the old machine and finalising the administrative stuff at the old site. Eventually, the anguish.org address starting sending players over to the new machine, and Anarchy began to die down. Impressively, only one person thought we were still on anarchy, but no harm was done and the attacked player was very understanding about it. I'd like to personally thank every wizard and mortal involved in any part of the move or Anarchy. I had a BLAST, and it was great seeing people having fun and old players logging in. For further details on the machine and the move, see 'help machine' and 'help aahistory'. *************************************************************************** * Do you have a mesmerising story from the Anarchy Days to share? * Let us know! Especially stories containing more jolly than bloodshed * are welcome. ;) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dubanka, the Early Years: When Vampirates Attack The Eldar Guild Master, Dubanka, is known for his fascinating war stories told to the youth of the guild in the warmth of the fireplace, as Namril dozes off in the background. He has agreed to share a story with The Canticle readership. Lorien: Okay! Welcome to Dubs Story Time. Lorien pulls up a chair and gets comfy. Dubanka: Starring me! As Dubs. Lorien: And Lachy as. Lachy. Tlachtgae: Ta daaa! Lorien: War stories. Tell us, Dubs. Some good stories. Dubanka: Did I ever tell you about the time I was in Drin's navy? This was way back, in the 20's. We had 3 ships, all named Earl after Drin's famous cousin, Earl Trueheart. He could smoke 4 pipes at once, two in his mouth. I was stationed on board the Earl VII, which was the flagship in those days. The uniform was a spangenhelm, full platemail, fine hide shield, and steel-toed boots. There were about 3 drownings a month, of course. I had an onion in my belt, which was part of the uniform in those days. We all wore onions because of pirates. Dubanka: Do you know why pirates are so pathetic these days? Lorien: No, I don't! Why? Dubanka: I don't know, they just arrrrrrrr! Dubanka: Anyway, we wore onions because most of the pirates back then were actually vampirates. And Drin wouldn't shell out for garlic. So we'd chase down this vampirate crew for 3 days, and before the onions, most of our crew would be either vampires, drowned, or drowned vampires after the fight. But with the onions, the vampirates would stop and say 'Arr, matey, what be that smell? Be that... GARLIC?' And then we'd say 'No, it's an onion!' and stab them in the neck. For despite all the rumours, a good neck stabbing is very effective against vampires. Even still, there was a good chance that after we defeated the vampirate crew that some of our crew would have been turned into vampirates themselves. Dubanka, The Early Years continued on page 9 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 9 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dubanka, The Early Years, continued from page 8 ... Tlachtgae: Did anyone interview them? Dubanka: Well, we had to interview every crewmember to determine whether they were a vampirate or not. Which was pretty easy because pirates, especially vampirates, are occupationally unable to conjugate the verb 'to be'. Plus, for some reason, they always suddenly had black capes. Well, it's tough to see one of your shipmates become a vampirate because they looks the same, modulo the cape and patch. And the bat that sits on their shoulder and repeats random phrases in a frequency so high nobody can hear it. Except for other bats, of course, so we always kept a spare bat as a translator. The code was: 1 tap for 'rrawk', 2 taps for 'man it's bright out here', and 3 taps for 'Polly want a swarm of insects'. But every once in a while the bat would tap 5 times. Lorien: Is that bad? Dubanka: For the longest time we didn't know! So one day when in port we checked the manual. And it turned out that 5 taps meant 'run for it, that's a vampirate in bat form'. Which I suppose we should have figured out by then, but sailors are not the kings of inductive reasoning. After that, we also had the handy discovery that 6 taps was 'Arr, matey, what be that smell? Be that... GARLIC?' So the problem pretty much solved itself. Lorien claps happily. Lorien: But. Did you die? Dubanka: No, I'm immortal, remember? Lorien: Oh good! That would suck if you died. Dubanka: Though it's a terrible feeling to walk all the way home underwater in full platemail. Tlachtgae: I don't think I'm going to let you suck my blood anymore. I mean. It was all well and good when you were just a creep. But a vampirate? I can't deal with that. Dubanka: I'm not a pirate! be am is are was were been! That was our motto, actually: beamisarewaswerebeen. Before the vampirates the motto was: 'A Navy of One'. But that's only because the navy was just Earl floating around in a raft. In the next issue, Dubanka has promised to tell us a story about the 23rd Mooseriders' Brigade. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet Prince Bazhi, The Chancellor This is Tarott special correspondent for the Canticle, reporting stories YOU want to hear. I have received words a bit of a celebrity would be in our town and of course I tracked him down for our readers. That is right, the one and only Prince Bazhi the chancellor. After a few days of stalkin.. er, camping out, I located the hero gearing up with some other legends for a long and worthy adventure. He was sharpening his glittering longsword. For all his reputation the man is a quiet sort. You could not miss him standing out in the crowd. Not just for his unusual light appearance, but for the gleam of his massive amount of platemail and gems. In the middle of the busy crossroads, while packing up, he agreed to be interviewed. I asked him what brings him to these lands? The mighty one responds, "My brother used to play a lot. I was 9-10 years old at the time and wanted to do stuff with him but he'd always be on. Eventually he just finally taught me the game." "Your brother? The legendary hero Dazhi?" I ask. Bazhi nods in agreement. "When you got here what was travelling like? What kept you exploring the realms of this continent and encouraged you to set such high goals?" I asked as he strapped his Belt of the Giant over his waist and shoulder. He replied slowly, almost cautiously, "My brother for teaching me and keeping me motivated, and the different ways he played from a lot of other people kind of inspired me to do some of the crazy things I've attempted." "When you first came here then did you know you would become what you would and who are your heroes?" I further question the man. He shrugs modestly as if he does not care so much about all the hype that surrounds him. He replies as he is counting his smokes and medicine packets, "The combination of the brother, the top xp players when I started, and Defarge who later became #1 xp before me and starting the cleric skilling all motivated me to do what I do." Meet Bazhi continued on page 11 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 11 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet Bazhi, continued from page 10 ... I move on to the last few questions. "What keeps you motivated and what are your favourite lands in this realm?" He ties his boots, "Basically that it's all about having goals to motivate you to get what you want out of the game to keep it interesting. Whether it be a certain xp or skills or abilities or something HoH or coding or anything. Bazhi's favourite area has to be Fub's, people even call it Bazhi's Fortress." HoH, or Hall of Heroes, is an extraordinary place listing countless achievements in these lands, and many adventurers have lost lives, riches, spouses and homes seeking a place in those halls. He shrugs his shoulders one last time, giving me grin, and waves his longsword at me as a goodbye. His partners give a sigh of relief, as they are eager to once again make the journey to see what treasures they will find. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * * * * * * * * Poetry Corner'd * * * * * * * * * * * 'Night' Endless sky above Infinity stretches on Darkness blankets all Pillows soft and white Float serenely through the air Giant clouds above --Sylwen * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * My poems are dark and about dismal pain I write about black souls and miasmic rain But now I am happy and rightfully so I'm full of delight and a bright shiny glow Because I can't gloom with a frown or a pout I have simply nothing now to write about --Alisyia Poetry Corner'd continued on page 12 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 12 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Poetry Corner'd, continued from page 11 ... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * While I was wandering one day, A bobcat came to play. His teeth really hurt, and my blood they did spurt. Because bobcats are really quite gay. Gary * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * An Opossum's Day Morning: Hello, mistress Sun! Welcome back! Now to arrange fur until it is just perfect. Mesmerise everyone with large, beady eyes. Day: Brutally scratching the hide of small mouse. Scamper around in the woods, make collector's finds. Oh, what's that? A hill giant? Run, run, RUN! Evening: Prowling the wood, looking for prey. Ow ow ow! Not quite tough enough for orcs yet. Curl up into a ball, nighty-night! _ . , . . * / \_ * / \_ _ * * /\'__ * / \ / \, (( . _/ / \ *'. . /\/\ /\/ :' __ \_ ` _^/ ^/ `--. / \/ \ _/ \-'\ * /.' ^_ \_ .'\ * /\ .- `. \/ \ /==~=-=~=-=-;. _/ \ -. `_/ \ / `-.__ ^ / .-'.--\ =-=~_=-=~=^/ _ `--./ .-' `- /jgs `. / / `.~-^=-=~=^=.-' '-._ `._ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 13 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Innovative Training: Coin Tag The Knights of Drin have discovered new innovative and nonviolent training methods for squires and younger officers. As the enemy tactics have grown wiser, also the Knights have been forced to take on more sophisticated approaches. While a direct charge is still considered the most honourful method for disposing of the enemy, stealth and perseverance are also needed to succeed in a changing world. Princess Suze, a former Elder Knight of the Rose, is acting as an elusive target, while the trainees' task is to tag her: give her a single coin, and leave before she can give it back. Wok, the Apprentice Squire, assures us this is not an easy task. "I once even waited in the dark, dangerous cavern with the Red Dragon to give Suze a coin." The quest of coin tag has also encouraged Knights to learn skills suited for the task. Team spirits are rising in the Knights also as a result of the retreat King Drin has recently opened in southern Anguish. The most worthy of the Knights have also now have new powers at their disposal. ---===> Do you consider yourself brave & chivalrous? <===--- ______ _______ | \ / | If the answer is yes, you will be pleased to hear that |...|+++| |\ \/ /| King Drin is recruiting new Knights for his army at this | * |+++| | \ / | very moment! All humans, elves and half-elves will be | I |+++| | / \ | accepted. Being a Knight means upholding law and order, | I |+++| |/ /\ \| and being part of a splendid group of people. King Drin |-------| \/ \/ has even proclaimed to be willing to handle out noble \^ ^ ^/ \ / titles to those Knights who, through deed and manner, \^ ^/ \/ deserve such a reward. \_/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 14 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet Fey Scarecrazy, the Knight Ranger This is Tarott, reporter for the Canticle. Well, folks, after multiple requests I've managed to secure a interview from the infamous Scarecrazy as she was boarding the Atlantis to visit her dear friends in the South-Eastern Isle. Upon setting sail I sat down beside her and asked her questions our readers have been dying to get answered. Scarecrazy was extremely embarassed, stammering a few words of what Hazelwood and myself were sure must have been "Thanks for bestowing such an honour." Some of the first questions were about what brought her to these lands of Anguish, and how long she has been here. Scarecrazy's trembling frame looks over the rails of the ship, as though she might just jump in terror before answering with a sigh, "Ah... I blame it all on one of my lecturers. He went in class: 'There's this thing called the Internet. Go find out what you can do on it.' My RL friend Kyle (aka Danann) went alphabetically down the MUDlist and... voila. Still here after uh... 12 years." Next I asked what would make her want to become a wizard then an arch and back again along with who are her heroes. She responds in a soft, slow manner which seems to make her more endearing still with just a touch of excitement now. "Hmm. I can blame THAT one on Katarina. She went and wizzed, and suddenly Jerusulum and Mert wanted to wiz too. After Katarina first showed me how easy it was to code a room, I couldn't wait to wiz and build some areas myself! Becoming an arch was just... they needed someone to do the work, and I had the time to do it. Buxley actually pulled quite a dirty one on me there - asked me to join World, and the next thing I knew..." Meet Scarecrazy continued on page 15 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet Scarecrazy, continued from page 14 ... "As far as my heroes," she says, smiling brightly. "There's different categories of heroes - I've always worshipped his Dawginess, and both his and Greyson's sense of humour has been one of the most endearing things about AA for me. On a more practical level, my heroes number Kosh, Elrond, Toshina, Mop and Paldin (and I think I'm forgetting one, which is going to make me VERY sad when I remember him/her)... for the reason that they were always willing to help me with coding problems, always willing to teach me. When I first wizzed there were a bunch of really sarcastic wizards around, and it if it weren't for these guys helping me, I guess I'd be a level 13 ranger by now (never could get out of the dying habit). Scarecrazy seems to grow more comfortable by the minute, her sweet demeanor becoming as warm as her tanned skin. Does she have any favourite activities on the Mainland, I prodded, and asked about her favourite areas as well. "As for favourite pastimes - playing a mortal, period :) Fishing... Pelting... Making medicine... (i.e. Rangering). Also rogue-ing, mage-ing, clericing, paladining and uh... My prowess (or lack thereof) with the other classes shall remain a state secret." "As for my favourite areas, there's quite a few, but for wildly different reasons. Greyson's ruins, Elad's Cyrano, Dawg's Drakhiya and Puck's Hopkins to name but a few." What advice would Scarecrazy give to mortals and friends all over Anguish, I inquire. Scarecrazy replies brightly, "I'd ask them to be friendly to newbies and help out where they could. I once discovered, about 2 years after it happened, that one thoughtless act of kindness from my side convinced a player to stay here on AA. Interestingly enough, we became friends as totally different characters, and then one day he went "YOU are So-and-so?!?" She adds, "You never know when the guy you help today is going to turn into one of your best friends." As we enter the dock, she edges towards the exit gate, eager, I'm sure, to see her friends. Carefully I ask one last question: "Are the rumours true?" Her disheveled hair suddenly seems to hide her green eyes as she looks down murmuring. "Nono, that was uh... MrKrinkle! Yeah. MrKrinkle." Waving good-bye she bolts for the door. This has been Tarott for the Canticle, You heard it here first! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 16 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Expose: Interview with Fir Fir has returned after a break of several years to pick up the job of acting editor again. Lorien has "interviewed" Fir on her return, and despite some editorial disagreements got the result in the press as Fir left to seek out Thaddeus. Lorien: Let me be the first, perhaps not the first, but one anyway! To say that I think you've done a wonderful job with it. Fir purrs contentedly. Fir: It's a good thing to know I'm paying you for the interview. Lorien: Now. I've heard some unsettling rumours as of late. I've heard there was a bit of a rivalry with the Dalairi press. Fir: Those no-good fish-wrap writers! Lorien: And that you in fact had paid some people off to hush it up. Is this true? Fir: Of course not! I never *paid* Erin to do anything like sabotage Clark's scandal paper. Lorien: And you've never tried to use your heavy handed ways to quash the freedom of the paper?? Fir: Oh, so they're *my* heavy-handed ways now? I deny everything! Lorien: Of course you do! I've heard about sabotage! Trying to burn the presses of the DFP! Deny that! We have several sources that want to remain nameless who say its true! Fir: Hey, who are you working for anyway? I'll pay you twice as much Clark's paying you! Lorien: I'm just reporting the unbiased facts! Fir: Unbiased? You have not even mentioned my beautiful gardening skills and donations to the Tantallon Tourism Council like we agreed! Lorien: (As you can see, folks, she's trying to bribe me. So sadly really.) Lorien: I was getting to that! Fir: Oh, ok. I still deny everything. Lorien: Of course you do. Now. You disappeared for a while. And I'd heard you were off taking over other papers across the realm. Is this true? Using your power to squash the little papers out of existence is what I've heard. Fir: Um, I was actually just hiding from Thaddeus, who was slightly miffed at the time. But only slightly. Lorien: And why would he be miffed? Fir: Disagreements over... printing matters, yeah. Interview with Fir continued on page 17 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 17 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interview with Fir, continued from page 16 ... Lorien: Uh huh. You sure you weren't trying to direct his stories too? Fir: I never directed anyone's stories! I only edited them to be more fit for the paper and our sponsors' wishes! Lorien: What ARE your goals Fir? Are you planning to wrestle the power from everyone and be Queen Fir? Fir: Mmmm, Queen Fir. I like the sound of that. Fir snaps out of it. Fir: I mean, I am just trying to make a paper profitable here, lest our sponsors withdraw their money. Lorien: Uhuh. Fir: These are financially unstable times. Lorien: I'm sure. Fir: We must think of our investors. Lorien: Of course we should. Yes. I see now. Lorien: (Power hungry Fir, wants to take over! Oh yeah.) Lorien: So uh. How're those gardening skills coming? Fir: Oh, I learned so many things while I was travelling in the more northern parts of Anguish. I have learned the mystical ways of how to get carrots to stay alive until they are ripe! I also tried gardening some other herbal remedies, but making salad out of them gave me such a headache and strange dreams. Lorien: Unfortunately they can do that. I see you've made Creator recently. Who did you pay off for that? Er. Did you have to work very hard? Fir: It took hard work something like four years ago, then lots of gossipping and a bit of work in the betweens. Lorien: And much cash? Fir: Much sweet-talking. Fir grins mischievously. Lorien: So now that you are a Creator, what's next for you? Fir: I've been getting to see the mud like I never saw it before. I've gaped at the cuteness of shapeshifters, tried my first mage spells... And killing! I have been killing things like mad after a five-year break. Fir cracks her knuckles. Lorien: What would you LIKE to see as an addition to the mud? Fir: I like things that connect existing things in new fancy ways. But it's a huge topic, lots of things fall in that category. Interview with Fir continued on page 18 ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 21.0 20 Icemonth, 585 Page 18 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interview with Fir, continued from page 17 ... Lorien: Anything you are actively working on? That you care to share? Fir thinks carefully. Fir: The Canticle is my biggest project, but I was also recently appointed guild master of the Monks of Antana. I'm still trying to get the thought to fit in my head. I'll aim to be at least half the GM Dubanka is in the Eldar. I've at least managed to achieve becoming a Monk GM while simultaneously remaining an Eldar - so far so good. Fir: Otherwise, I've got my Creator project waiting to be installed as a part of a larger bundle once the rest is ready, and I'm working on some more class hall trashcans and an estate that has ties to the human noble houses history. Before my break I was working on an auctioneer update, and shapeshifter games - but my board gaming area plan did not pass the World check so the project was transferred to another drawing board. I also get urges to fix all kinds of funkinesses I manage to run into, but I need to prioritise them down a bit since I want to play these days too. :) Lorien: Okay, thanks so much for your time Fir. Fir: You do realise we will edit all of those unrelated questions out! Lorien: We'll see about that! Lorien: (The truth is out there. Just not published most of the time.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lawstorming In Moonset 585, a mighty storm gathered and Arah's Wild Hunt returned to Anguish. Poppy and a group of her offspring were banished for continued harassment, and the ruling was put to force by a brood of crimson dragons. Researchers of rare species from the Academy are pleased to note that Arah's dragon seems to have been keeping busy during the peace. The new brood will be needing lots of food... Arah was also spotted feeding Ravenlock and his gang to Duplicitous, a bewildering dragon with two faces. Ravenlock was banished for a drunken player killing spree.