Update Notes – July 2000 – To Raise a Banner of Flame
Lo Ma, Jeweler of Lin, smiled as he accepted the payment from Kouron. “Thank you,” he said, with polished professional gratitude. “It’s hard to make a living in a forest town – “
Lo Ma was cut short as the ground swayed; he stumbled, but Kouron, who was not only (in his own opinion) a masterful item enchanter but a fine archer as well, rode out the movement with ease. “Another one!”Lo Ma cried. “And the sky’s turning colors, the air feels oppressive – ”
“And there are golems in the mountains that I haven’t seen since the last time I went to the Dires,”Kouron said, with a cool hunter’s smile. “And I hear of drudge lurkers in the forests to the far north – what a pleasure that will be.”
Lo Ma shook his head and muttered under his breath; Kouron’s smile remained.
“Imagine!”To Za-I, Lin’s Weaponsmith, stomped over, both irritation and wonder on her face. “Krau-Li! I haven’t heard that name in years!”
Kouron shrugged, but Lo Ma exclaimed, “That old warrior with the fine jitte, said to be Ben Ten’s rival! Has he been found?”
To Za-I shook her head. “I doubt it – I think he joined his ancestors long ago – only, some idiots are throwing the name around as if they had found him! But look at this.”She held up a tiny cloth sack. “Lo Ma, you are a jeweler. You know metals as well as I do. I was given this today. What do you make of it?”
Lo Ma carefully opened the sack. Curious, Kouron casually reached out and touched the cool, gritty powder, letting it slide across his fingertips . . . and suddenly recoiled. “Oh no,”he muttered in alarm and distaste. The others stared at him in blank surprise. “I think – I think this metal . . . never mind! Who gave it to you?”
The Shadow Spires continued their slow, imperturbable glide over the landscape, moving towards goals none could yet guess. Small groups of Shadows could still be found wandering the landscape, but their army, and their generals, remained sight unseen. Many began to wonder what the enemy was planning, if anything. Some optimists insisted that the dark ones had forgotten about this world, and gone on the bigger conquests elsewhere.
In north- and southwestern Osteth, residents were harried by an influx of creatures from the Direlands, driven east by the new, ferocious creatures that arrived in Seedsow. They were not the only creatures busy, however, as the massive Lugians discovered an ore with unique properties in the Linvak Mountains to the south. Soon they had opened three mines to recover this “Chorizite,” which appeared to be conventional metal that had somehow been rendered magically “dead,” and could not be affected by enchanters. When humanity discovered this marvelous material, the workers quickly found themselves overrun with eager would-be miners.
While the Lugian miners logged a staggering number of workplace accidents with their supervisors, Isparian sages found a variety of uses for Chorizite. Refined and forged, it could make weapons capable of piercing all protective enchantments to self and armor, although these weapons also shrugged off all manner of arcane enhancement. Ground, it could be used as a reagent by mages. As a result of Chorizite’s unique properties, spells that used powdered Chorizite were able to dispel enchantments on their target. Distilled, the ore could be used in alchemy, allowing those skilled in this art to make drinkable potions that would dispel low-level enchantments.
Meanwhile, one of the earliest defenders of Dereth was found to be not quite as dead as had been earlier assumed. The crypt of Mi Karu-Li, perhaps the most famous user of the Sho jitte weapon (some said he was the only user) was found empty. A note found nearby complained that he had been buried alive, and had gone off to complete his work. Explorers did later find Krau-Li, quite dead and half-decayed, but still maintaining that he was alive. In exchange for the return of one of his older jittes, he offered the reward of his newly developed “improved” jitte.
The smiths of Dereth also developed new weapons. Swordstaves and tridents came into use by spear users, as did spiked clubs for those who preferred the mace. Perhaps inspired by the ingenuity of humans, the mewling drudges “developed” wooden boards with nails stuck through them, and used them to poke innocent passersby. The giant Lugians took this “innovation” one step further. Young Lugian hooligans were soon to be found bashing one another with bigger boards, and bigger nails.
The biggest news of the month was the discovery of a passage to a heretofore-unknown island. A pair of undead heralds arrived in the Direlands, one in the northeast at the undead fortress of Chalicmere, and the other in the southeast, at a trio of sandy old crypts. In exchange for huge sums of money, these emissaries would cast a portal to the island of Aerlinthe, lying to the northeast of Dereth.
Aerlinthe was an intensely volcanic island, with several peaks ringing a central lagoon. It seemed, in fact, that the island’s nature had been the death of its original population long ago; a ruined port was discovered along the southeast shore, its inhabitants frozen into positions of horror by falling ash. Many fossilized undead skeletons still wandered the island, as did a host of bizarre new creatures. Coral golems lined the navigation channel into the lagoon. Tenuous vapor and plasma golems roamed the calderas of the volcanoes and the underground.
Intrepid adventurers, following instructions found on the bones of an undead Empyrean smith, managed to restart the old forge mechanisms built into the central mountain of Tenkarrdun. With a rumble that could be heard as far away as Ayan Baqur, the volcano came to life. Plumes of magma and a hoard of powerful blue-white fire elementals issued forth from the caldera of great Tenkarrdun. Those who visited the steaming crater found themselves overwhelmed and driven back.
However, the sighting of a great beast brought them back for more. The “Behemoth of Tenkarrdun,” a huge and powerful (though stupid) magma golem, had crawled up from the depths of the mountain to blister and squash all who dared approach its home. It was, eventually, overwhelmed and killed. Some say a mere duo managed to slay it, others insist that it took an assault of nearly a hundred to bring it down.
Unfortunately, Aerlinthe has managed to keep its remaining secrets for the time being. As Leafdawning drew to a close, the bulk of the invading force of fire elementals still held the caldera of Mount Tenkarrdun. While many searched unsuccessfully for some obscure, hidden method to end their reign, few seemed willing to directly challenge them in open combat. Perhaps this was due to the fierce conditions in the crater, or perhaps because what commanded the occupying forces could not easily be discerned.
- Squelch has been updated. There is now a new set of commands to enable a user to take more control over their gaming experience. The improved functionality will allow you to squelch all characters from a single player. You can also filter out unwanted messages, such as assessment. All other previous functionality of squelch remains the same. For a complete list of all commands, try the in-game help by typing: /help squelch, /help filter, /help advancedsquelch and /help messagetypes.
- All wands, whether new or previously owned, fire more slowly.
- All quest-item wands, whether new or previously owned, use half as much mana.
- Only new non-quest-item wands will use half as much mana – we were unable to change old non-quest-item wands.
- Certain monsters, such as Olthoi, Lugians, Zefirs, and Phyntos Wasps, are more likely to switch their targets than before, and attack those who are hurting them the most.
- It less likely that you will pop off the edge of a mountain and slide down the slope.
- Strange new weapons with properties unseen before in Dereth have been added.
- More powerful spears and maces have been introduced.
- The maximum stacking size for spell components has been increased to 100 and for craft items to 50.
- New spells to discover have been added!
- New extremely powerful monsters, residing in a place yet to be discovered by powerful adventurers, have been added . . . be careful where you tread!
- The problems with players receiving ” You are not a Player Killer ” error, or (if PK) hurting themselves while firing arrows, have been fixed.
- Using mana stones on Compound Bows now brings up a confirmation panel.
- Monsters in some dungeons now regenerate a bit more slowly, to prevent the dungeons from getting too overloaded.
- New and exciting dungeons have been added for all to enjoy.
- Added alchemy/fletching/cooking mastery to the treasure system – magic hats now have a 5% chance of having one of these spells on it.
- Chances that a Diamond Golem will drop a heart have been increased.
- The odds of getting a trophy from certain banderlings have been increased.
- Corpses no longer float! Gravity has sucked them back down to earth.
- Ambient sound upgrade project has begun. The center of the Obsidian Plain and volcanic regions have received love in this update. More to come.