+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The Olympia Times issue g1-70 | | October 25, 1995 | | | | turn 70 158 players http://www.pbm.com/oly/times/ | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+Questions, comments, to play: info@pbm.com
Olympia PBEM
* * *
"Being rich is having money. Being wealthy is having time."
Player-contributed press
Welcome to Gildeath - The Gateway to the North West.
The City of Gildeath and it's surrounding lands on the Isle of Antresk, are the lawful demesne of the Draconian Elite and their allies. Travellers are welcome, but please inform me when you wish to traverse my lands.
-- Draconian Elite [fg4]
---------------------- S. CAMARIS Update ----------------------
Monthly notice: any new visitors to our fair isle should notify us in advance.
-- The Crazy Quilters [vn7]
Customer Testamonial on behalf of the First Bank of Provinia
Greetings, Provinians! My name's Dan Slamerde. Last year before leaving Imperial City for dangerous journeys, I wisely made a deposit of 1000 gold at the First Bank of Provinia. My travels, unfortunately, were not profitable and I returned to Imperial City a year later like a whipped dog.
If I hadn't invested in the Bank of Provinia, today I'd be just another low-life scumbag weaving baskets for a living and roaming the land searching for a place to die. This month my account closed with a total balance of 2239 gold!
So take it from me, Dan Slamerde, don't wind up *dans la merde*, invest in the First Bank of Provinia. You'll be glad you did.
-- Dan Slamerde [f8f]
Hey, I just call it like I see it:
Turn 29, outside of the Imperial City:
Posted by Mr. Dark [w0c]: "WARNING!! PIRATES IN THE ATNOS CHANNEL! Swishbuckler (w0p) and Rory Patch (s9k) in the ships Rory's Revenge (ga4u) and the Gay Galleon (ci2g) have set themselves up in bz22 and its environs. Their rather simple plan? Attack any ship leaving the IC that appears to be weaker than themselves. As they currently number 55 fighting men or more, not including sailors, this will probably include a lot of ships. All players are warned not to leave the IC unless their ship is extremely well-armed. Also, all those wishing to join in an operation to clear the seas of this menace, please contact s5e to arrange an expeditionary force. Act now: if they keep seizing ships this close to the IC, pretty soon they'll have an invincible navy."
There is also a signed statement linking Swishbuckler & Rory in issue 45 of the Times.
I also know that the good sherrif is AOO & his forces are seen in the Chateau, the abode of the infamous Viliz & the downright rude & clearly evil Archbeastrixs (or however you spell it). The company you keep, you know...
-- Amra [g1p]
Unpaid Public Endorsement
Since shortly after arriving in Olympia, my faction has been a frequent customer at the First Bank of Provinia. We have found the Bank to be a fair and equitable operation giving good value both in it's financial services and it's merchantile operations. We heartily recommend the First Bank of Provinia to anyone seeking a secure and apolitical business connection capable of creating profitable opportunities for any faction.
- Representing Desdinova and Company,
-- Desdinova [g7t]
___ ___ ___ / / ) / ) /___ /___/ /___/ / . _ _ /_ / )_ __ / / _ _ . __ . _ / / / _> / /___/(_>/ //< of / / (_)|// / // (_>The First Bank of Provinia has offices in some of the major cities on the continent of Provinia. The FBoP offers the following facilities.
o Special offers for New Olympia Players. o Excellent Interest Rates on Bank Accounts. o A Fast and Efficient Courier Service. o Money Transfers. o Short and Long Term Loans. o Insurance Policies. o Pawn Broking Service.
Call in at your local branch for further details.
The customers of the FBoP are recommending the services of the Bank. If you want to find out just how good we are, talk to them. Our customers can say more about just how good we are than we can!
-- First Bank of Provinia [v0z]
Rumors
When is Olympia game 2 going to start?
Yeah, okay - check _THIS_ out!
Faction [xx0] rank ------------- ---- Characters: 212 1st Men: 1186 1st Gold: 42,558 1st Land controlled: 4,423 1st Skills known: 69/70 1st Spells known: 77/80 1st Provinces visited: 8,841/9,995 1st
Quit now, while you're still alive!
To mete the winds, slay longer.
"A bon chat bon rat!"
So, all these attacks by the AOO were a complete waste of time and resources, eh?
Yet another cheap 25 gold...
Ok, so Beeteeay gets a report on every mage who builds an auraculum. It sucks. Atnerks is a Twinkie, too. Live with it.
So... Get absorb aura blast.
Now Acne-man can't fry you; he has to find you and sneak in someone to your location, then teleport a Heap Of Dragons(1) to terminate you.
Put up protection from a scry.
Build your auraculum while you're somewhere out of the way, with a swift means of moving elsewhere (figure it out yourself, chicken- lips, I'm telling you the rest, and if that's not enough, Mr. Unnatural Selection may be doing us a favor).
Beady gets his report. Now he knows your ID. It's not like people don't know his....
Now MOVE your butt. Move some more.
Now Mon-sewer Even His Mother Despises Him has to arrange to have your scry protection taken down, and then have a vision done (so that you don't get a report--another of Atnerk's incredibly good ideas), *before* he knows where to send his stealthy minion to catch the dragons coming out of the ether to blast your butt.
As long as you move at the beginning of the turn (actually, better be moving at the end, already), Senor Social Disease wastes his time and aura (and someone else's) trying to be where you are (not, any longer).
As long as you're smart enough to NOT hang out in a small area, and make the same moves repetitively, you can move, be stealthed, hide from the scry, and generally make them waste as much effort trying to find you as you have to waste moving.
But if you've waited long enough to make your auraculum, it's not as if your time is all that valuable, except when you want to cast a spell. And since you're doing a couple things to make it hard to find you, you can afford time to cast spells, you just can't spend ALL of it doing that.
Now Mr. Inept Spelling Of His Own Name can't fry you out of hand, and has to worry as much about you, and the others *like* you as you do about him.
After all, he's doing this already, to protect his own mangy carcass (actually, to protect his unjustly superior auraculum).... And when there are a several of us....
(1) Heap Of Dragons is a registered AOO trademark.
Someone asked: > When is Olympia game 2 going to start?
Beats me. When is Arena going to start?
Someone else asked: > Why can't you perform common tasks on a ship? Aren't there all > kinds of peasants and sailors and such on board?
Yes, but they're all your followers, so you actually end up doing those common things for them w/o pay. It's all clearly spelled out in the Peasant's Union contract.
Yet ANother Someone asked: > PLease I'd Like to buy OSSICUS, could you post the cost here?
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
-- The Answer Guy
Someone asked about performing common tasks on a ship... Well, rumor has it that the Swishbuckler regularly services his crew. Yo ho ho!
> " PLease I'd Like to buy OSSICUS, could you post the cost here? "
We'd trade it for anywhere not about to be invaded by the AOO, you know how that can drive property values down.
-- General Norc [z1a]
Research is boring! I don't remember when I made the last discovery.
!!! The Swishbuckler Affair !!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Following: a translation for the deception-impaired of the oration made by the Good Sheriff just last month.)
> I would like to make a statement in response to recent accusations > in the Times concerning Swishbuckler and the Cohorts of Colossus.
*I would like to make up some stories about Swishbuckler not belonging to me before anyone gathers en masse and starts sacking my garrisons.*
> Swishbuckler is not a member of the Cohorts, and I am not party to > any piracy going on in the Atnos channel. I captured Swishbuckler > to end his first reign of terror, but he died under my tender > ministrations (he also escaped several times, so that I had to keep > recapturing him). Multiple times, in fact.
*Swishbuckler is my noble and I am, at heart, a bloody opportunist. But my "honest Sheriff" facade is a good one. I've put a lot of work into it and I'd like you to keep believing it. I might have captured Swishbuckler from someone else. But if I did, the piracy thing showed potential so I continued the tradition. Either way, saying I captured and chased down Swish several times is a good way to explain his hanging about Gentlewind, don't you think?*
> I repeat: Swishbuckler is not my unit, and I am not party to his > actions. I will add the sum of 2000 gold to the bounty on his > head, and will dedicate a ship and men to hunting him down.
*I repeat: even though it's a total lie, please believe that Swishbuckler is not my unit, and I am not party to his actions. To help you believe, I'll make some bogus announcement about things I'm doing to help track down my own noble. You might even see my ship sailing about the Atnos Channel, probably _just missing_ the notorious Swishbuckler.*
> Those wishing confirmation of this information should contact the > Clan with no Name [py4]. They can verify the participation of my > faction in the hunting of this miscreant.
*Anyone who wants his head handed to him should contact the Clan with no Name [py4]. They can tell me who you are, so I can hunt down your nearby characters or get my AOO buddies to do it. (Locations worldwide, membership has its privileges - the AOO Card, don't leave home without it.)*
> -- Sheriff Pelenth of Gentlewind [f3i]
* -- Sheriff Pirate of Bloodywind [f3i]*
Translator's Forecast:
Swishbuckler captured, brought to justice, public trial and execution 1-3 months The Golden Age: peace comes to the Atnos 8-11 months Channel The Dark Age: a new pirate, complete with 9-12 months+ new noble ID comes to renew the cycle of death and plunder, occasionally seen in the company of characters who bum around Gentlewind
Why is it that the Great BtA sent in his latest treatise to the _Times_ as a rumor and not as press?
From the last Times:
************** Warning, Death approaching *******************
Any structure in AOO held territory is unsafe. If you are in any of these structures you will be considered a friend of the AOO. We will kill you indiscriminately. -Guerillas of the Mist
Gosh, what a throughly novel approach to beating up on landless factions. Prehaps you would be so kind as to post a list of lands you consider to be "AOO held territory", for those of us who aren't blessed with this insight. Oh well, at least you don't discriminate. By the bye, I like the way the whole thing tapers neatly. Very nice.
OK then, how much mithril am I offered from an old book that that allows a noble to learn Necromancy?
Money makes the world go round!
"Swishbuckler your fish-food"
>> Amra's friends have seen Swishbuckler paling around >> the the infamous Rory of back. We've also seen an >> inn near Gentlewind called, at one time, "Rory's >> retreat", to which, surprise surprise, the nasty >> bandit retired when his bad karma started catching >> up to him a while back. >> >> -- Amra [g1p]
Amra is confused. Rory's Retreat [d7f] was built in by27 by Rory of Castleknock [a5v], not the pirate Rory Patch [s9k].
WANTED: Information concerning Ossicus and/or the Liberty Confederation.
With the latest discoveries concerning auraculums, (which apparently aren't documented anywhere, by the way,) I thought it would be good to provide means for players to protect against losing 12-24 months of real time investments in a single stroke. Comments welcomed.
Bequeath Magic Lore [9210] -------------------------- Usage: USE 9210
Required aura: none Required item: Time to cast: automatic when needed
Through this skill, the mage arranges to pass on his gathered wisdom and power in the realm of Magic[160] to a chosen inheritor. In the event of the mage's death, the mage's spirit will seek out the inheritor and attempt to sequester a portion of the mage's life force within him. If successful, the inheritor will learn the Magic[160] category skill and all spells in that category known to the mage. The inheritor's current and maximum mana are adjusted to reflect the newly learned lore. Spells already known to the inheritor yield no benefit.
There is a bequeathing spell in each magic skill category through which a mage can pass on knowledge of that category and its spells. The bequeathing process works in the following way: at the time of the mage's death, all of the magic category skills for which the mage has learned and used a bequeathing spell are assembled into a group. Category skills are then chosen at random and a chance exists for each category skill to be successfully bequeathed. Chance for success is based on the order chosen, as follows:
1st chosen category skill 100% 2nd chosen category skill 60% 3rd chosen category skill 40% 4th chosen category skill 30%
Each skill after the 4th has a 30% chance of being successfully bequeathed.
Bequeathing automatically fails for any inheritor who is nonexistent, dead or who has a higher maximum mana than the bequeathing mage before the bequeathing process begins.
A mage who successfully bequeaths any fraction of his life force passes on to the next world. 1 NP is returned to the controlling player and the mage does not yield a corpse in any graveyard.
Hmmm, by my rough count the public reward on my buddy Swishbuckler is 3000 gold, three times what was offered for BtA 15 or so turns back. I hope BtA's feelings aren't hurt by this sudden displacement as the World's Most Hated Villian.
Another 25 gold...
************** Warning, Death approaching *******************
Any structure in AOO held territory is unsafe. If you are in any of these structures you will be considered a friend of the AOO. We will kill you indiscriminately. -Guerillas of the Mist
*************************************************************
Hmmm...so the AOO has around 400 dragons to throw around.. Me thinks if everyone came together, they would be in trouble. --a faction trying to figure out how a dozen or so bad guys have everyone scared out of their minds.
Do castles ever get damaged/need maintenance like ships do?
The warlock stood before a narrow arrow-slit in the outer wall of the tower, watching the trail winding below to the nearby city. Sunlight poured throught the shattered door to the battlements on his left, and faded blood stains marked the stone around him, but his attention was on the small party on the trail below. A group of almost two score men, and that many more man-like figures half again the size of a man, along with several covered wagons had emerged from the city less than an hour before and was making its way towards the castle in which he stood. That matched the size of the group he was expecting, and he had seen no other travelers leave the city since he had arrived at the unfinished castle several days before. But there were ways to make sure.
The warlock pulled his grey cloak closer about him and raised his cowl to shade his eyes from the sunlight. Then, working a simple spell he cast his mind along one of the threads of magic that stretched from him outwards. There was a brief moment of disorientation as his mind settled into another body. Ahead of him, he could see groups of men armored in leather and carrying crossbows at the ready. A shadow fell across him from his right, and his skeletal host turned its fleshless head to see a cyclops walking besides it, a club as thick as a man's leg held ready. A wagon rolled past, and under the tent-like covering he could see the wicker side of a cage and eight shining eyes set in a chitinous head as large as his own watching. The Undead turned forward again, and the warlock saw the leader of the group, a young noble, tanned from years spent outdoors, and wearing a thick, leather belt from which hung, not the normal sword and dagger, but a multitude of craftsman's tools.
Satisfied, the warlock ended his spell, and his vision returned to his own body. Then he went to greet his vassal.
Some minutes later the approaching group reached the gateway to the unfinished castle. The great blockhouse and archway leading into the courtyard had been completed, but gates were yet to be hung when the castle had fallen. The warlock waited for them in the archway, while several of the man-sized humanoid Dragons wandered near, and eyed the newcomers almost eagerly. As the younger noble left his forces and approached his leader, he noticed that several of what he had first taken for decorative gargoyles perched on the battlements above the entrance opened glowing red eyes and watched him carefully.
"Sire." He bowed slightly to the warlock as he greeted him. "I see that the battle went well for you here."
The warlock smiled. "As expected. Their defenses were hopelessly inadequate, and they trusted the remoteness of this land to defend them from others. I have captured two of the vermin, and, when they had nothing to offer for their freedom, put them to the sword. The Cleansing has begun very well indeed."
"What is our task now?" the young asked him.
"You will take charge of this place. Today, set your men to work on bringing it down, for I want nothing but scattered stones to remain by the end of the month. Put their ship to the torch once that is done, and then guard the trails that lead to this city. There are still a few of them loose here, and if they manage to combine, they have enough force to pose a minor irritation. If any try to escape this way, hold them until I return."
"And you will...?"
The warlock smiled again, but there was no humor in his eyes as the Dragons around began to rouse themselves and hiss in eager anticipation. "I will hunt!"
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Anyone willing to share more rankings?
What is an auraculum?
>> Anyone besides me think G2 is a bad thing for G1?
Well if your favorite sport is hunting the wild newbies - Yes.
With the latest discoveries concerning auraculums, (which apparently aren't document anywhere, except in the lore archives published at the beginning of the world and advertized in every issue of this fine publication since), I thought it would be good to provide means for players to advance in magic more quickly. Comments welcomed.
Purloin Magic Lore [9211] (requires Advanced Sorcery) ----------------------------------------------------- Usage: USE 9211
Required aura: none Required item: Time to cast: 1 day This skill allows one mage to extract all the magic knowledge from another mage. The target mage does not have to be in the same province as the casting mage, or belong to the same faction. The casting mage doesn't even need to know where the target mage is. The only requirement is that the casting mage has a higher total maximum aura than the target mage and that the target mage has posted a self-serving suggestion for a new spell within the past 6 months (real time).
The effect is to kill the target and transfer all known spells and schools to the casting mage. The target is utterly destroyed and all NPs invested in him are transferred to the faction of the casting mage. So are all unused NPs of the target faction. As a side-effect all surviving nobles of the target faction have their banner changed to "whiner" and made unalterable until the casting mage decides that the target faction has shown sufficient repentance.
The justification for this new spell lies in the widely felt pity and compassion for the hard life of todays archmage. Not only did he have to spend his entire waking hours for decades over dusty old tomes, only gets to drink Orc Brew in the commercial he films and has hardly any social life to speak of. In addition everybody hates him and he can't trust anybody and so constantly finds himself in situations where he is forced to fry the brains of his closest friends and allies. But the final straw is doubtlessly that he constantly has to listen to suggestions about how to erode his few and hard-fought for powers. There has to be some compensation for this.
-- Just another compleeeeeetely disinterested party