Posted by Counselor Hamlet on June 12, 1999 at 11:33:14:

*Jingles In*

Ah, hail to thee! *bows*

"Word, words, words," I said when asked what I was reading. I brushed away a jingle strap from my hat and pointed to the red sign. "Rules, my friend. No spell castin' in the Counselor Guild Hall." The person to whom I was speaking shrugged his shoulders, went over to the table in the corner and helped himself to have pizza.

*sigh*

If only they had cookies, I thought.

Friday nights are usually slow for some odd reason. The calls in the queue were already handled by other Counselors [please note the spelling, thank you], so my job was to spend my free time in the Britain Counselors Guild Hall. Many a citizen had popped in that night from all walks of life. Most were there for the free food *mumbles something about cookies*, but some came in with questions or comments.

"I made 83 in magery, and a swordsman. I want 100 dex and 100 str, but I'm capped. Any advice?"

"Good luck," I said. This character and my primary were oddly similar, and I knew well the battle between stats and skills. "Hack, caste and meditate," I said in response to his query. We laughed, because that's probably all you can really do in this case. Then he said that he was going for GM magery, and said that should only take him one month. Mages, please stop laughing at the boy. I already broke the news to him.

My first call, actually, my first two were about boats. Dry docking, to be specific. You can't dry dock a boat with items on the deck or in a hold. The rules are the same... as if you were docking a boat with a harbor master. For another, who was concerned that his boat keys disappeared when he dry docked his boat, I reassured him. You see, when you dry dock your boat, the keys are destroyed. But never fear: once you return your ship to sea, new keys are created in your pack and bank vault. Pretty neat, huh? "Man, that's great" the caller said. "I was worried I wouldn't be able to get on my boat! Thanks, Hamlet."

I bid him adieu and went to the next call. A housing call. Yes, more questions about housing come in than requests for our robes. This one was in Vesper. I, and my fellow Great Lakes Counselors constantly get asked about this very location. "The house should fit!" they say. Aye, true. With houses north and south, the plot for a small house is 17x9. Houses need to be on flat land with no nasties such as rocks or mushrooms. But, one thing some do not realize, is that you cannot build in a guard zone. Even if it is partially in the plot. I also dispensed some other advice concerning finding plots of land, including the warning that you can't build near a dungeon entrance. Satisfied with my answers to all of their housing concerns, I wished them luck, bowed, and made my way back to the Guild Hall.

There I met Flute. Asking me if I read Shakespeare, we discussed his works and she told me about the UK. It was a very interesting discussion, and I learned a lot about another country.

Now, before you think: see, that's why Counselors never come to calls, or it takes them like 2 hours to get there, let me stop you. There weren't any calls in the queue at the time, and if there were, another Counselor would quickly snatch it up. The only time it takes forever to get to the call are: when Counselors aren't on the shard at the moment (currently, Teserax the Wise, the mighty SRC of GL, is working on getting 24 hour volunteer staff to counteract this), or we're swamped with calls from players. Prior to logging in, I heard that the afternoon queue was swamped, constantly in the 20's with two Counselors, including the fabulous SRC Zaronia, handling the queue. But, even on busy days, the Great Lakes Counselors always take the time to make sure that the player's questions are adequately answered, concerns are solved, and, in those instances when GM assistance is needed, we get one to assist you if the problem occurs during scheduled GM hours.

Speaking of GMs, my next call was a page from a player who had previously spoken with a GM concerning lost items in an armoire. The GM advised the player to destroy the armoire to retrieve the items. Unfortunately, this home owner (only home owners can destroy furniture in a house), was unable to do that, even with an axe. I passed the call to the GM, who'd be able to resolve the situation, then dispensed some valuable advise. You see, armoires are very tempermental. They only like items being placed in them when their doors are opened. Otherwise, they'll store your items, but you can't see them. Some GMs will remove the items from the armoire, some won't. And me, well, I hate seeing such beautifully crafted furniture have to suffer the wrath of an axe, so if you'll follow my advise, you beautiful home won't lose that armoire.

*sniffs and smells cookies*

Ah, a baker! I must depart.

Fare the well, all! *bows*

*Jingles Away*