___The New Official AVATAR___________________________________
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_____________________________________August 8, 2003__________
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/.--. The Avatar Gazette
|====| For subscription info,
|`::`| read HELP GAZETTE
.-;`..../`;_.-^-._
/\ / |...::..|` | | `| Produced by Angel Kenji
|:' | /'''::''| | | | With assistance from
@| /;-,/ :: |=========| Fernando (Lord alt)
`|| <` > >._::_.|=========| New Hero/Lord stats
|| `""` / ^^ | | | | Lady Mirana
|| | | | / Story writer
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Apologies for the delay in this month's Gazette. As always,
real life has a way of stepping into my Avatar time. Not that
Avatar is more important than real life, but sometimes, it
certainly is more enjoyable. ;)
This month's Gazette will be a bit shorter than the previous
one. Lady Mirana's story, "Over the Bridge" will be delayed
this month. And, two articles that I wanted to work on were
pushed back by aforementioned real life. *growl*
Here's what you can look forward to this month:
Latest news
New Hero / Lord Stats by Fernando (Lord Alt)
Area Reviews:
-Borley Manor by Lady Kyandra
-Air of Avatar by Angel Kenji
My Life as a Hero by Immortal Kariya
A Lord Run by Lord KayeOsse
Website of the Month - Avatar Pictures and Boards
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Latest News
The biggest news is the replacement of four stock areas with
brand new areas built by our builder team! The four stock
areas removed were all lowmortal areas. The four new areas
are:
{23 28} Aeryn Barrier Wastes
{28 33} Zahri Desiccated Farmland
{40 45} Luni Tortured Terrain
{51 51} Kariya Obsidian Tower
That's right, a new hero area! Check them out, and as always,
the builders would love to hear your feedback on the areas.
As every artist would tell you, they love hearing what people
think of their creations. Send feedback to each builder on
board 2 or to Devasant.
REMORT/REBUILD CHAR TRANSFERS ARE PROHIBITED
A clarification came down recently. It is prohibited to sell
any character that was ever level 51 or higher, even if after
a remort or rebuild. This means that you can no longer buy
or auction a demonseed, sorcerer, etc.
Dragon, Troll, Griffon & Sprite characters created before the
remort changes are still okay to sell, as long as they have
never attained hero status.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
New Hero / Lord Stats by Fernando (Lord Alt)
This is the top ten levelers at the Hero and Lord tiers
during the last two weeks. Perhaps in two weeks, your name
will show up here too. Good luck, and level a lot the next
two weeks.
Disclaimer: if you didn't show up in the list two weeks ago,
you won't show up here. Sorry.
Top 10ish Lord levelers Top 10ish Hero levelers
Myrl 45 Milliard 333
Tammo 45 HeLiC 328
Nebulate 39 Mepharic 249
Mringasa 36 Kary 245
Ravage 28 Archeraplyxa 240
ZerBert 28 Malicious 220
Xoxo 26 Cojar 201
Neuromancer 25 Mochi 179
Odesy 25 Burzum 171
AEton 24 Alakazam 166
Shahk 24 Lasiter 165
ADDITIONS:
11 Heroes morphed in the last two weeks. Please
congratulate the following on their success.
Akaron, Cloppety, Crunge, Grash, KaBOO, Longshot,
Perpetua, Rayceem, Rubric, WaiWai, and Wizrow
Lord remorts or rebuilds
REMORTS: CURVE and Twinkyshot became High Elves,
Fraggle became a Troll, Hurl a Demonseed, and
Sekhem a Griffon
REBUILDS: None
DELETIONS:
There were 0 Lord deletion(s) in the last two weeks.
Trivia:
193 of the 920 Lords currently in the realm leveled in the
last two weeks, up from 191 from the previous update. At least
you are consistent. :)
ADDITIONS:
Please congratulate 51 characters who reached Hero 9+
Achaiah, Achim, Alter, Amant, Aravan, Athelas,
Auir, Aurellion, Brayden, Brilliant, Carnage, Celestian,
Cyria, Droow, Emrys, Freedman, Freedom, Goldensun,
Gorvin, Gwen, Jaihibairin, JiUne, Kirtar, Lysana,
Malevor, Maya, Nihvenok, Orin, Ouija, Questor,
Rahxephon, RIvAk, Salim, Samar, Selphie, Snowflurry,
Strygo, Suffer, Sukaira, Swordstalker, Tarin, Tebor,
TenKei, Thane, Thellaren, Thoms, Twinkyshot, Ulath,
Unsterblich, Verlegenheit, and Wesker
May you all have continued success and happiness at the Hero tier.
FAILED MORPHS: Wakana, Terry, Memory, ShadowClam, and Merkin
DELETIONS:
Kanu departed the hero ranks, only because of his promotion
to Angel. Welcome, Kanu, Avatar's newest Angel.
1 character(s) departed the realm.
Take a moment to mourn the following:
Folace, former Hero 207 Troll Ranger
May he find what he seeks outside the realm.
TRIVIA:
649 of the 2828 Heroes Hero 9+ leveled in the
last two weeks, up from 630 from the previous update.
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(
Once upon a time, long, long ago wait, that's another story.
Okay, it was a few weeks ago or so. Kenji asked me to write
something about Borley Manor for the Gazette. I thought about
it. You see, I never ran Borley. Way back when I was a hero,
Borley was a scary place. This was before Morte and when
Divide was very new. The Veil of Ecstasy and Borley were
considered the most difficult hero areas there were. And Veil
mobs detonated. So I have decided to turn this over to my
sister alt, Kyzlynnke. It was she who mastered Borley.
---- Lady Kyandra ni'Sharabet, agnostic cleric
Once upon a time, long, long ago, ouch Kyandra, that hurt,
okay, okay, I'll get to the point.
It was spring, I forget the year. Avatar was down and it was
going to be awhile. DaWiz decided to load the code onto a
server at his place, and created avatarwest. We called it
twink mud. To keep the crazy player base content and happy,
he turned on hog and set the restore command to player level.
Oh, and you could multi. This was well before shadow and
Kyandra had lord mana on Midgaard. She could quicken spell
ups and drone me with comforts to keep me alive. So I decided
to explore. I found a map on an old map website of Borley and
set out to learn its secrets.
Borley to me is one of the most fascinating areas on Avatar.
It is an old fashioned haunted house, equipped with rotting
cadavers, howling wolves, ghosts, and player eating plants.
I fell in love. I took the map and added in all the
connections and levels the map builder had left off. And then
walked it and walked it and walked it again.
Borley is actually an easy area to learn to run. The high
level mobs are stationary. These are the Borleys themselves
- Lupus, Cacaphony, Dicentia, Vincent and Nemo. oh and the
Crawling Chaos that lives under the chapel. Borley is home
to two pieces of hero mana gear. Both require you to kill
that Chaos. On death it gives you a random ring and the
ticket to get the Red Velvet Cape. It also has many hidden
mobs.
Being a thief, I could see that something was there, even if
I couldn't tell what. That made it easy. From maggots, to the
souls under the chapel, to the ghosts on both the ground and
second floor, these hidden mobs require either area spells or
a quick rescue if you are waiting for them to aggie a groupie.
And many a groupie has been known to splat waiting for a tank
to get out of spell lag and rescue them.
Only two mobs wander and both will aggie. The wolves (Lupus'
pets?) wander the eastern wing on the ground floor. The
remainder of the house is filled with cadavers of dead
servants who walk the hallways of both floors, often congre-
gating in large groups.
Nemo lives in the attic as do poisonous trap-door spiders and
vicious mosquitos. Nemo's room, and others, hold desks with
keys to other rooms and to the unpickable door that leads to
the area under the chapel - the area where the Chaos lives.
Other spiders can be found in two different areas, one on each
floor. They are also poisonous, and do not have spider as a
keyword. Beware they don't bite you before you figure out what
they are.
Borley contains two passages that are made up of private rooms.
One is a way out, the other leads to a monster guarding the
Borley treasure horde. Borley, like the Hotel California, is
one of those houses that when you enter, the door slams behind
you and disappears. There is no recall. There is no Mercy. And
if Lupus gets you, no gurney either as he consumes your corpse
and scatters your belongings all over his room.
If you think Borley is somewhere you want to explore, find your
way to the ugly stone gargoyle. Go north, and remember, once
you are inside, there is no turning back.
----- Lady Kyzlynnke, Elfish Thief
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(
Air of Avatar - shortcut to everywhere
One of the most common complaints I hear about the low mortal
game is that players run out of moves. I've done it myself so
many times, I can honestly write most of a Gazette during my
frequent regen periods. (Just in case you wondered, I do play
lowmortals frequently, as do many of the Angels and Imms. So,
keep that in mind when you have a lowmort asking silly quest-
ions on NCHAT. It just might be Snikt in disguise!)
One of the best ways to counter this lack of moves is to fly
above the area. Many of the lowmortal areas take 3-4 moves
per room. Traveling from one end of the Meadow to the other
could easily eat up 80-100 moves! But, since the 'fly' spell
isn't learned until levels 7 & 9 for mage & cleric, and not
until Hero for other classes, and there are no new-player
races that can fly, how is a new player to fly above the
area?
Well, the first part of that answer is to get the Owl's
Wings from the Hundred Acre Wood. I won't be too specific
as to which mob, but if you've ever read Winnie the Pooh,
you should be able to figure it out. Once you get these
wings, you can wear them to fly from area to area, then
re-don your normal gear as needed.
The second thing you can do is use the Air of Avatar. This is
easily one of the most useful, and most forgotten areas in
the game. Think of the Air of Avatar as a 'connector' area
to many of the most useful areas, kind of like a New York
subway. Except without the guy playing the guitar in the
corner. *blink Mindesto*
Type HELP MAP. There is a basic map of the major cities in
the game. This is, in essence, just what the Air of Avatar
looks like. Here is a basic map of the area.
Mt Durr------------------Ofcol-------------------------
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
Solace-----------------Midgaard-----------------------|
| Great
| Wall
| |
| |
New Thalos------------------Wildwood
No aggies to be found. The mobs there, fairies, air
elementals, etc. range from levels 10-15, and are relatively
easy to deal with, or can be ignored all together. In fact,
I find them rather cuddly and loveable, as far as mobbies
go.
Now, to get to the Air of Avatar, just find the rough
center of town, then search around the next few rooms to find
an 'up' exit. Don your wings, and you are in the clouds! Most
of the room descriptions tell you which direction you can see
each of the cities, so you know where you are headed. Easy
enough.
Next time you need to head to Midgaard from Solace, don't
waste all your moves walking, instead, take a hint from an
Angel, and fly!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Editor's note: This is the second in a three part series by
Immortal Kariya detailing his ascent from mortal to Immortal.
The first part can be found in last month's Gazette, avail-
able at www.outland.org
The quest to Hero, by Immortal Kariya
When I returned a few weeks later I decided to spend as much
time possible on Farside and as little as possible in the
classrooms and I succeeded in doing so, to the point that I
never spent time in classes by the time the new year
arrived. (Not a good example, I know..stay in school, kids!)
My advance through the levels however went slow.
Remember I am in The Netherlands so I only play(ed) US night
hours and there were usually only two insomniac Americans,
and a few Australian guys (Zeke, Badger and the always semi-
drunk Waylander.)
Slowly more people appeared at nighttime, folks like Hotshot
with whom I grouped on several occassions. Also there was
Maverick, another Dutch guy, and Triock, who was a co-worker
of his.
Ever so slowly I climbed the ranks and befriended people.
I met people like Dazed, Lurch and Rackhir, guys who vowed
they would never become Immortals (Lords weren't around at
that time) and created the [BEH] (Brotherhood of Eternal
Heroes). Rackhir was my best friend on the MUD around that
time. We spent days and days talking, and just hanging out.
We were also close friends with Lloth, the (male) drow cleric
and May, a female ranger. The four of us started the elite
mysterious group simply known to others as {KM} and only a
few know what these initials stand for.
Hero:
So, if Rackhir was such a good friend, then why wouldn't he
help me get those final experience points to hero-ship?
Because that silly guy was busy talking up some girl in
his office room while I needed just a thousand more xp!
It was Sanctimoose who grouped me and we killed Wu, Wei,
Crispy Critters and Olympic Groundskeepers left and right.
And then it happened, I believe it was in Padmasa, killing
Scanners..I heroed. Right away, Maverick (immortal by then)
hazed me over and over but I couldn't be any happier..I
finally made it! By now it was somewhere around april 95.
I heroed just before the decision was made that heroes no
longer got ALL spells at lvl 1. So I got to train
everything at lvl 1 instead of seeing it spread out over
a hundred levels.
Then a change came over me. Gone was the friendly happy
fellow.
My dark side started playing up..
I became Kariya, the Evil Dark Hero of Utami. In fact I was
one of few evilly aligned heroes at that time. (Rackhir,
Lurched and Kylara being the others I believe.) Pretty soon
I worked out the whole RP background and the whole Utami saga
started.
Summer arrived and Hotshot came to the Netherlands for a
business trip. We met up in Amsterdam along with Triock and
Maverick and had a great time talking and sight seeing.
What I'll never forget is that she wanted to see Amsterdam,
you know the parts that it's famous for. The Red Light
District. So we took her there, and after five seconds she
had enough. Apparently the sight of an err..older
woman in S&M garb winking at us from behind a window didn't
appeal to her. Or to any of us for that matter. So we quickly
went the other way. All in all we had a blast.
They remained the only three mudders I met in my first nine
years on this game. (Well, not counting May who is a good
friend living in Holland too.) By then I pretty much quit my
studies, and started playing from a library back in my
hometown of The Hague while working on the side. Over the
summer, I knew what I wanted to do, I didn't want to join
{BEH}.
I wanted to become an Immortal...
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
One of the perks of being an Angel is that I am subscribed
to pretty much every Avatar mailing list, just to add to the
spammi-ness of my life. (I know it's not a word, Aqeldroma,
but I just made it one!)
This story came from an email from KayeOsse on the Lord
mailer. I thought it was a great 'teaser' for anyone who
didn't have a lord and didn't know what a lord run is like.
It doesn't give away too many 'lord secrets' and just might
whet someone's appetite for what a lord run can be like.
From KayeOsse's email:
After posting that last email, to put the lie to my words,
I went on a rather not-boring run. Led by Hurl with one
brute-tank, two caster-tanks and uh, 1 or 2 others (sorry
can't remember). This is long, so skip the huge paragraph
to "the end" if you don't want to read my attempt to re-
create our struggle.
The six (or seven) of us bravely shifted planar energies
to emerge, beset, at the Outland plane's shift point.
While fighting the first two enemies who had been set to
guard it, more came to their aid. Our mighty warrior was
brought low (on hp) by the nasty gith who swarmed towards
our party. Next, our cunning rogue was nearly felled when
he tried to save our warrior! Finally, when it seemed all
was lost, Bol and I, two humble clerics, took over from
our more powerful brethren.
Courageously, we struggled to keep ourselves healed as
blow after blow landed upon us. Our mighty warrior,
being a troll, took a nap. Upon waking, he once again
began to defend our group. We still hadn't moved from
our shifting-point! As the gish continued to arrive to
drive us off their plane, Bol and I found ourselves hard-
pressed to keep the warrior healed. Directed by our leader,
the one and only mage, Solary, began to focus his energy more
powerfully, draining himself faster to inflict more damage
upon our enemies. It seemed we would soon be free to continue
our journey, but lo! Who arrived but that most fearsome of
Outland's wandering population, their Champion! Gritting our
teeth, we struggled on. Battered beneath the horrid gleaming
blade of the Champion, Lavendel, unable to dodge very well,
seemed ready to lay down his life. Finally, knowing that we
couldn't heal him fast enough, I dove in front of him,
distracting the Champion.
As his mighty sword whistled through the air towards me, I
knew I was going to die. As the others in the group rained
blows down upon the champion and his minions (who were now,
themselves, distracted by Bol), as I struggled to keep myself
out of reach of that gleaming band of death, our rogue shouted
out "he's disabled!" Somehow, somehow, that mighty blade
missed. Our mage targetted all his energies upon the champion,
and finally he fell at our feet.
Still we were not finished, though, for the two guards of the
shifting-point, called by some unknown sorcery, or necromancy,
returned to fight! To compound our troubles, the most
powerful of our protective spells, the sanctuary of the gods,
faded in mid-battle. Bol, ever-prepared, drew from the depths
of his pack a holy cross, and brandished it, restoring our
protection. Now, we knew, if we did not flee from this plane
soon, we would all end up floating above Thorngate, bereft of
our weapons and protections, spirits to haunt the corpses of
this killing ground. Fortunately, our luck turned. Perhaps
we had won our freedom with the killing of their Champion,
perhaps now they were too afraid to come near. However it
happened, we finally defeated the last of our enemies, and
there were no more to hand.
Though we could see more in the distance, and though our
protective enchantments were not even half-way through
their course, we warped the energies of the plane, and came
home, safely, to Thorngate, leaving behind nothing but the
corpses of the slain gith to attest to our struggles.
------------------------------The end! (heeeheee)
-Lord KayeOsse
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Website of the Month
Avatar Pictures and Boards - http://avatar.debonair.net/
At my RL job, I am unfortunately not able to telnet out,
to log onto the game at whim. However, I do have web
access, and one of the few Avatar sites I have found that
is not blocked by the US Air Force-mandated firewall is
Debonair's Pictures and Boards site.
That said, I love Deb's site. First, there is something
fascinating about interacting with someone who may be
1000 or even 6000 miles away, then, after you have formed
an impression of that person, looking at their picture to
see what they look like. You would be amazed how accurate,
or how dead-wrong your impression can be!
Next, is the discussion boards. By far, the most frequently
visited board is the Auction Board. Want to buy a 10/10
doom shard, a 14/14 wield, or a set of base 12 double-
brilled antharian rings? You can find it all on the Auction
Board. Grandfathered gear, well-enchanted stuff, even level
50 Kzn Psis can be found for sale on the auction board.
There is even a separate auction board for lords, to help
maintain some of the lord mystery about their gear and
equipment. Access to this board is restricted by Deb.
Other boards include a forum discussion board, creative and
polls, where you too can answer great poll questions like,
"What do you think Riviat looks like in real life?"
Of the sites I visit frequently, Deb's site ranks right
after the main Avatar website. Check it out, and submit your
photo today!
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
That said about the website, there is something else I would
like to discuss quickly. We have all heard the constant
reminders to vote for Avatar. If Avatar can consistently place
in the top 20 at www.topmudsites.com, we will continue to
attract new players, which is a great thing for our game.
However, there is another thing we can do to help advertise for
Avatar. TopMudSites has an option for a player to write a
'review' of a game they play. It requires no registration, and
can take as little as five minutes. Take a few moments, think
about what keeps you coming back to Avatar, and write a review
for the game you love. When I visit TopMudSites.com, reviews
for games are one of the things I like to read, and they have
coaxed me into trying other games out. It just might help bring
a few new players into our realm!
=============================================================
This is the new Avatar Gazette. It is published with the
permission and cooperation of the Avatar staff by
Angel Kenji. (Original concept by Asamaro and
Dizzy.)
The Gazette is written in plain vanilla ASCII text to ensure
that everyone can enjoy it regardless of computer type.
To subscribe to the Gazette, send internet e-mail to
gazette-request@avatar.walrus.com. In the body of your
email put:
subscribe username@hostname (MudName - RealName)
eg subscribe snikt@avatar.org (Snikt - Kevin Jagh)
Your real name is optional for the Gazette list.
eg subscribe snikt@avatar.org (Snikt)
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, criticisms,
compliments, or (best of all) articles that you've written
for the gazette, please send them to Kenji via my e-mail
address: Angel_Kenji1@yahoo.com. Please use 'Gazette' as your
subject.
You can also view the latest issue of the Gazette while
playing Avatar by typing 'help newgaz' anywhere in the game,
or by surfing our web site at www.outland.org!
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