January 2002

SUV would like to thank those that attended our smithing contest. We had a turnout of 10 smiths of Napa Valley that competed for a total of 60K in gold. First place was won by Drixer who took home 30K for his efforts. Second place was won by Calis of Stormhaven who took home 18K, and Holgrath, also of Stormhaven, finished third with 12K in winnings. We had a great time! Thank you all for coming, and a special thanks to Stormhaven for their support.

Dugal McLoed,
Seekers of Virtue

Your humble servant,
Raeven Aurora

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Saturday, December 29th at 11pm EST, the guild of PE (Power of the Elements) began the first multi-guild tournament in the town of Nu'jelm on the Checkerboard to the southwest of the castle, Trammel side on the Chesapeake Shard.

This event is now a weekly event. Saturdays at 11pm EST. Please go to Tournament Website for more details.

Always looking for trustworthy guilds to participate.

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G*B Guild is Proud and Honored to Present A Brand New shopping Mall for the UO community. Grand Opening Saturday, January 19th 2002 12 Noon Pacific Standard Time! Mall features Leather, Special, Black dye tubs, A full library, Forges and anvils, looms and spinning wheels, Stove oven and mill and Lots more. Get your Armor repaired or a full makeover!! Coordinates to this brand new mall is 71o 53'N 63o 33'E.Please feel free to ICQ me if you need a rune or gate to the new mall. We will have gate's at all major trammel banks on Saturday for this grand opening!!! Cant wait to see you there!!!

Lady Yavanna (G*B Mall Manager) ICQ 72247035

Come One Come All!!!!!! ABC is Proud to Present the Brand New MAGIC SUPERSTORE!!! That's right!! 12-14 vendors devoted to Magic Weapons and Magic Armor in a competitive setting to keep prices low to benefit all our customers!!!! But the best part is we only offer Force, Power, Vanq, Hardening, Fortification and Invulnerability!!!! The best of the Best!!! First shop ever to do this!! Coordinates to this brand new store are 18o 43'N 4o 59E or if you go to Britain Cemetery we are on the right side next to sandstone. We look forward to seeing you there!!! Grand Opening 7pm Saturday, January 19th 2002!!!

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Who's that Girl?

Welcome to the newest contest at the Ix Library of Knowledge!

We have on display a statue of a mysterious lady. You'll need to come to the Library at Ix to see who it is. From now through February 1st, show off your knowledge of this lady or the virtue she stands for, and you could win a prize! The best entries will be placed on display with the statue at the end of our contest.

To enter, please post your entry to our scrolls at http://pub88.ezboard.com/fknightsoftheforgottenwayfrm4, or send mail to [email protected].

Or put it in a book and give it to Chino or Sabine!

Here's a map to the Library!

-Library of Knowledge, Ix (http://www.calamity.net/ix)

Who's that Girl?

Welcome to the newest contest at the Ix Library of Knowledge!

We have on display a statue of a mysterious lady. You'll need to come to the Library at Ix to see who it is. From now through February 1st, show off your knowledge of this lady or the virtue she stands for, and you could win a prize! The best entries will be placed on display with the statue at the end of our contest.

To enter, please post your entry to our scrolls at http://pub88.ezboard.com/fknightsoftheforgottenwayfrm4, or send mail to [email protected].

Or put it in a book and give it to Chino or Sabine!

Here's a map to the Library!

-Library of Knowledge, Ix (http://www.calamity.net/ix)

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The City of Britain and Council of Compassion are excited to introduce the Auctions of Britain! These live, in-game auctions are sure to provide fun entertainment, as well as promote trade and interaction. We'll provide the auctioneers, time, and place. You bring your goods to sell or your pocketbook to bid. Don't miss out on that good deal or that new customer! The next auction takes place at the Conservatory of Music (Trammel), on Friday, January 25, 2002. Please visit our website (http://www.calamity.net/britain) for more information!

We encourage sellers to pre-register their goods at our website anytime until the day of the auction, so that we can advertise the great items. We will take registrants at the Conservatory from 6:00 to 6:30 CST Friday evening, before the auction begins. There will be no registration after 6:30 CST; no exceptions! Please visit the Auctions of Britain website today, for all the information and details.

The auctions begin at 7:30pm CST, with Craftables in the East wing. There will also be a simultaneous "Newbie Gear" auction in the West wing of the Conservatory. The "Newbie Gear" auction is aimed at newer players. Sellers, please indicate whether or not you wish to sell in the "Newbie Gear" auction when you register your item(s). For late registrants, we'll be at the Conservatory from 6:00 to 6:30 CST Friday night, to get your items registered for auction. Again, please see our website at www.calamity.net/britain for more information!

Lekka Esdere,
City of Britain
Council of Compassion

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The Merchants on Tour (Mot) have now opened their 7th shop. It is located in a new two story villa a few steps north of the Cove gates.

On sale are colored armor, shields and VDP (VDP: Vendor displayed price - rates the quality of a weapon. Editor) weapons of all kinds. Also available are runes to all the other MoT shops.

As a shopwarming event we're having a small tombola - makeing checking in especially worth the time.

The Merchants on Tour also are permanently looking for talented craftsmen, willing to supply the shop (for a reasonable pay) with their goods.

We are offering an almost guaranteed market for any player crafted wares, even in large numbers. Community feeling is very strong within the guild, and we are holding regularily events. A few of those are even planned, but we won't give out any news right now :)

More infos are available here

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Hear ye, Hear ye!

I am pleased to announce a grand Archery Contest, to be held on Tuesday, January 22nd, at 8pm Central Time in the Sturdy Bow Bowery of Yew, Trammel facet. Any archers who wish to test their abilities in hopes of winning gold, weapons, prizes, and everlasting fame are encouraged to participate! Archers who plan to attend the event are encouraged to arrive early, as the number of contestants shall be limited by space in the contest location.

The details of the competition are as follows:

1. Grandmaster, exceptional, or normal quality longbows are the only bows which are permitted. No magic or orcish longbows, or crossbows of any form, are allowed. (New grandmaster crafted longbows will be available free to contestants, while supplies last.)
2. Contestants are not permitted to wear any clothing or armor having magical enhancements, or to be under the effects of spells or potions while participating.
3. Details of the bracket system by which contestants are matched will be announced at the contest, prior to beginning.
4. Prizes will include over 100,000 gold, and valuable magic weapons, including a vanquishing bow, to be divided among the top three participants!

Prior to Tuesday, questions about the contest may be directed to me, Aine Blackwood, or on Tuesday (at the event) to Cire Daelin, who will be in charge of the contest. The bowery is located at 57°, 13' North, 53°, 13' West, on the North Eastern corner of the main town square of Yew, and the contest will begin shortly after 8pm Central Time. The contest is being held for the benefit of the community of Yew, with hopes of renewing activity within the city. With that goal, I hope to see many of you there!

Sincerely,

Aine Blackwood
3rd Seat, Justice
High Council of Britannia

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Time: Thursday 24th of January, at 20 CET.

Hail to thee Traveller! It is our pleasure to announce the Third Market Day of Cove (Trammel). This will be your day to meet people and make good trade agreements.

The Tradeport's Merchants will be there to offer products in many fields, as will the visiting merchants as well.

If your interested in coming to the Market and reserve a place (note that you can come without notice too, if you prefer, but you have to provide your own sales table), drop a note at our bulletin board at: http://cove.rper.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi.

The Market will be hold at the Gaveston Manor roof, and exact map can be found at: http://cove.rper.org/

Wishing to see thee there,
The Gaveston Family

Thanks, and good luck with the market.

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Thanks for that!

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Are these bows part of the 30 Items plus coming out with UO:LBR?
-Yes, but figure they all count as 1 item. Any and all items in the scenarios count towards that number.

Are these bows the new "wearables" that were talked about a few weeks ago that were going to be introduced for Archery and Bowyery?
--Not sure what you mean by that.

Will this same system, (acquire a bow, then modify it with gears), be used for any future items that Bowyers can make? Such as the Japanese Long Bow thats sitting in the Third Dawn folders?
--It could be, but there are no specific plans. Other new craftables could just be made from wood like normal bows.

Will we Bowyers be allowed to repair Heavy Crossbows with gears, ingots and boards? Can we do the same to Crossbows and any new bows like the Slayer bows?
--No plans for that at this time.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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We’ve all reached a goal, or completed a particularly challenging task that left us with an immense feeling of accomplishment. There is something invariably pleasing about reaching our most wanted of aspirations. Even in game, there are tangible goals that players reach for everyday. Everything from buying your dream house, to finally GM’ing a skill you’ve put so much work into can leave behind a sense of achievement. It validates your efforts, and compels you towards further success.

We’d like to hear stories of your accomplishments in game. It can be something as grandiose as taking over the entire Shadowlords stronghold single-handedly, or as simple as surviving a quick jaunt through dungeon Deceit. It’s time to toot your own horn!

Send your story as an e-mail, with a single screenshot attached, to [email protected] by Friday, January 25th. Please be sure your story falls between 500-1000 words, and include "Accomplishment" in your subject line. The screenshot should be in bitmap format, and 640x480 resolution. Please provide a name and phone number for verification of the story. Submissions to "uo-profiles" become the property of OSI and may be used for special events, promotions, and/or advertising. All submissions must be made by the original author and are subject to verification.

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71st Assembly of the 6th High Council

Date: Monday, January 21st, 2002
Time: 10:00 PM EDT/9:00 PM CDT
Location: Magincia Parliament Buildings, Trammel Facet.

Meeting Agenda:

• Announcement by Lord Galahad regarding the Council of Honor in Trinsic.
• Announcement by Lord Singlarad Arlista regarding the new Mayor of Minoc.
• Other items to be announced at the meeting.

The High Council of Britannia

Thank you,
Lady Geneveve Orseau,
High Council Archivist

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Here is a transcript of "Kabur's Journal". Some words are missing (marked by ????) because I couldn't make them out at the time I was copying the book down (they scrolled off the edge of the pages). The book itself can be found in the large bedroom at the back of the castle, on the ground floor. It is of the small red variety, and is sitting on the desk in the north of the room.

- BA Barrackas

-------------------------

The campaign to slaughter the Meer goes well. Although they seem to oppose the forces of ours at every turn, we still defeat them in combat. Spies of the Meer have been found slain outside the fortress of ours. The fools underestimate us. We have the power of Lord Exodus behind us. Soon they will learn to serve the Juka and I shall carry the head of the wench, Dasha, on a spike for all the warriors of ours to share triumph under.

One of the warriors of the Juka died today. During the training exercises of ours he spoke out in favor of the warriors of the Meer, saying that they were indeed powerful and would provide a challenge to the Juka. A Juka in fear is no Juka. I gave him the death of a coward, outside of battle.

More spies of the Meer have been found around the fortress of ours. Many have been seen ???? escaped the wrath of the warriors of ours. Those who have been captured and tortured have revealed nothing to us, even when subjected to the spells of the females. I know the Meer must have plans against us, they send so many spies. I may send the troops of the Juka to invade the camps of theirs as a warning.

I have met Dasha in battle this day. The efforts of hers to draw me into a Black Duel were foolish. Had we not been interrupted in the cave I would have ended the life of hers, but I will have to wait for another battle. Lord Exodus has ordered more partrols around the fortress of ours. If Dasha is any indication, the Meer will strike soon.

More Meer stand outsidse of the fortress of ours than I have ever seen at once. They must seek vengeance for the destruction of their forest. Many Juka stand ready at the base of the mountain to face the forces of theirs, but today may be the final battle. Exodus has summoned me, I must prepare.

Dusk has passed and the Juka now live in a new age, a later time. I have just returned from exploring the new world that surrounded the fortress of the Juka. During the attack of the Meer, the madman Adranath tried to destroy the fortress of ours with great magic. At once he was still and light surrounded the fortress. Everything faded from view. When I regained the sense of mine I saw no sign of the Meer but Dasha.

She has not been found since this new being, Blackthorn, blasted her from the top of the fortress. The forest was gone, now replaced by grasslands. In the far distance I could see humans that had covered the bodies in their marks. Even Gargoyles populate this place. Exodus has explained to me that the Juka and the fortress of ours have been pulled forward in time. The world we knew is now thousands of years in the past. Lord Exodus says he has saved the Juka from extinction. I do not want to beleive him. I asked this stranger about the Meer, but he tells me a new enemy remains to be destroyed. It seems the old enemies of ours have passed away to dust like the forest.

I have spoken with other Juka and I suspect I have been told the truth. ???? the Juka had powerful dreams. In the dreams of ours the Meer invaded the fortress of ours and a great battle took place. All the Juka and all the Meer perished and the fortress was destroyed from Adranath's spells. I would not like to believe that the Meer could ever destroy us, but now it seems we have seen a vision of the fate of ours now lost in time. I must now wonder if the Meer die not die in the battle with the Juka, ???? did they die? And more importantly, where is Dasha?

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In an e-mail group, Calandryll confirmed :

The pic of the horse is a skeletal mount….

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

Evocare added:

Yep, that's a skeletal horse as it looks in 2d. What you see there are Evocare and FierY iCe battling the spider king "Mephitis" (one of the "boss" monsters that can appear in Ilshenar). =]

--------------------------------------------
Tom "Evocare" Chilton
Lead Designer - Ultima Online

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• No Pets or summoned creatures
• No poisoned weapons
• No magic weapons except magic bows
• No invisibility of any sort
• All combatants will target a designated judge before the match starts
• Only combatants are allowed in the ring
• No looting
• No time limit

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Foresaken One was the grand prize winner and claimed the 100,000 gold. Cronos came in second, and took home a shiny new (complete) set of alchemical glassware. You can check the entire tournament tree at http://baja.mage-tower.com/

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Come one, come all to the Cove Merchants Guild & Homes of the Exotic & Illustrious Tour's Scavenger Hunt! We are asking you to go searching the lands for fun and strange items for a chance at a huge prize!

The scavenger hunt will take place Friday, the 18th, at 8 pm by the central skies. All who wish to come should be at the Cove Merchants Guild (first house outside the Cove city walls) in Felucca by no later than 8:30 pm.

Books of required items will be handed out to each team of THREE OR LESS. The first team to return with every item on the list will win 250k plus a holiday statue for each person on the team! All teams that complete their lists will also be given a prize!

Don't miss the fun and prizes!

Free Homes Tour Packs will be given out to all, ale and party snacks will be available. Smiths will also be on hand to do free item repair and made to order armor if the ingots are supplied!

Heather, Cove Merchants Guild

Kyra, Tour Coordinator

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Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
The DeathKnights of The Order of The EbonSkull have announced their weekly tournaments! The tournaments are to take place at the Sepulchre of the Damned in Caina (Northern tip of Ice Isle, Felucca) at 9pm EST on Saturday, January 19, 2002. Entry is free and All are welcomed to participate. Those who don't wish to fight are welcomed to witness the bloodshed that shall ensue! Take heed! Thy mounts are not welcomed in the building! Stable your pets before arriving in the city. Unattended mounts will be removed from the premises and fed to the orcs.

Need a rune to the city, more information, or to pre-register for the fights?? Contact Nathalia via raven (icq) 115407750.

The tournaments and rules are as follows:

**Two vs. Two Tournament**
-No Looting.
-No Mounts/Animals.
-No Magic Armor or Weapons.
-No Pre-Poisoned Weapons.
-No Hiding/Invisibility Spells.
-No Recalling or Gating.
-No Summoned Creatures.
-No Stealing.
-The Only Pre-casted Spells allowed are Reactive Armor, Magic Reflection and Magic Trap.
-The winner of this tournament shall receive 50000 gold crowns.

**Summoned Animal Battle**
-No healing of the summoned creature.
-No aiding your summoned creature in its fight.
-What you summon is what you get.
-Every participant shall be using there summoned creature to battle at once,this is not a tournament
-The controller of the summoned creature is allowed to move around inside the arena with its creature, but not allowed to attack other controllers summoned creatures in
any means other than using his summoned creature.
-If your summon creature does not last the duration of the fight you are disqualified and not allowed to summon another.
-If there is no winner, the last controllers with summoned creatures alive will be allowed to summon a new one to finish the battle.
-No Recalling or Gating.
-No Stealing.
-The controller who wins this battle shall receive 30000 gold crowns.

Congratulations to last winners of last week's tournaments! The Shadow Riders claimed championship for both tournaments. Blaze vanquished many opponents to claim victory in the in one vs. one battles! He carried home the grandprize of 50,000 gold coins! Raditz proved to be the best mage in the Daemon battles, summoning the strongest Daemons of all and taking the prize of 25,000 gold coins!

Please visit www.ebonskull.org for more information on The Order of the EbonSkull.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Guardians of Lore Writing contest. This was our second contest and I think it went very well, even better than the first did. I was really surprised at the number and quality of entries that we got. We had thirty entries filling a total of forty books, not a bad haul at all! With so many entries it was hard for us to sort out the winners, but here is what we eventually came up with:

1st Prize: For Maleisha by Kallianos
2nd Prize: Willowford by Gotter McVay
3rd Prize: The Child by Willavid

Copies of all the entries, including the winners, have been placed in two of Atlantic's finest public libraries. I encourage everyone to go and check them out when you have a chance. The library in Fogwood is in a small tower at 95o 21' N, 24o 7' W, in the woods northeast of Yew in felucca. It is directly northwest of the famous Serpent's Cross Tavern.

The other library is located in the second story of the Rivendell (large) tower, which is at 31o 22' S, 6o 23' W, south of the Britain farms in felucca. Both libraries have all the entries in a separate, labeled bookcase.

Again, thanks for everyone who entered, we had alot of fun running the contest and reading your works, we hope to do it again sometime.

Annunzio

PvP Ladder!
The PvP community on the Atlantic Shard is hosting an ongoing PvP ladder. This is open to anyone wanting to prove themselves on a shardwide basis or to just pit their skills against someone else. The best part of this ladder is that it is tracked on an overall standing and then best in class. Below is a complete description of the rules. A webpage will be coming up soon, but until then if you'd like to register or have any questions, you can reach us at the email address below.

Thanks,
Markus

PvP Ladder Rules:
Ladder rules:

1) Entering:

Each person signs up for the ladder under a specific type: mage, dexer, med/dexer


a. The ladder tracks the position of each person on the overall ladder
b. The ladder tracks the current position of best person in class.
c. The Email Address to sign up is: [email protected]
d. You may enter more than 1 character in the ladder, so you can have one from each class.
e. While you can have more than 1 character, you may not substitute one character for another’s rank. For instance you make a new dexer, and you want him to replace your old one, he has to work his way up.
f. Tracking is done by char. name and class.


2) Getting Seeded:
a. Upon signing up, 3 Referees will get together to establish a ranking based on “seeding”. This is only for the outset of the ladder where people will be assigned a position.
b. Challenges can begin as soon as the ladder is posted.
c. After ladder is posted and challenges have begun all new and additional character entries will be seeded last.


3) Challenging and accepting a challenge on the ladder:
a. You can only challenge once every 2-3 days.
b. You are only required to accept a challenge once every 3-4 days
c. Challenges will be issued via icq and email to the 2-3 head judges hosting the ladder, and the person. (That means multiple recipients and less chance of losing track)
d. A ref. will be assigned to the match.
e. The challenger to the ladder rung will be able to pick the location (there are 3 different places.)
f. The defender of the ladder rung will give 3 different times.
g. The challenger says which time is better and the match is set up (defender notifies referee.)
h. The defender of the ladder has 36 hours to respond to the challenge and set up a definite time.
i. The match must take place within 48 hours of the challenge being acknowledged.

In top 9, challenged by person right under you.
In 10's challenged by people 2 away
in 20's challenged by people 3 away
in 30's challenged by people 4 away.
i.e.
#3 challenges #2
#13 challenges #11
#26 challenges #23
#34 challenges #30

in cases of something like #29 and #33 it is the lower slot that determines how far away they can be challenged. So #33 couldn't challenge 29, but 32 could.

Anyone denying a ladder challenge or anyone not replying to a ladder challenge, within a specific time period, is considered a forfeit


4) The fight
a. Fights begin on time. Late person forfeits the match.
b. Runes are made available and locked down at a certain spot.
c. In the event of server down, match is rescheduled and fought within 24 hours.
d. The way to win a fight:

1. Kill your opponent

2. Your opponent leaves the battlefield

3. Your opponent yields

4. Match will continue until one of these happens, regardless of time.

e. The ref. will announce the beginning of the fight.
f. The winner of the fight keeps and retains all loot he/she chooses off the loser.

5) The Equipment
a. Weapons will be limited to: anything that can be MADE BY A CHARACTER in the game.
b. Equipment: You can have no more than 30 items, not counting newbied items like runebooks and spellbook. Any combination of 30 items is fine, as long as a created character has made it or it is a skill. (i.e hiding would be ok, but a ring of invis. would not. Detect hidden is ok because it is a skill and casting reveal is also ok because it is a spell a character can cast.)
c. This is a no-holds barred competition. As long as it does not interfere with game mechanics and is not considered illegal, anything goes.
d. While tamers may enter, if it can’t fit in the pack or are riding it, they can’t use it. The issue of a Nightmare or the new ridable dragons is still up for debate.

6) The outcome
a. The ref. will be responsible for reporting the winner to the person updating the webpage and the judges via icq and email.
b. In the event the declared loser issues a challenge, the Referee will meet with the judges. The judges will ask for players input only if they choose. The outcome is final.
c. There are 4 ways to win a competition:

1. You kill your opponent.

2. Your opponent leaves the boundaries of the battlefield.

3. Your opponent cheats.

4. Your opponent yields.

7) The Judges:
a. The judges are not allowed to be in the ladder.
b. Referees are allowed to have other characters in the ladder.
c. The judges are responsible for administering the ladder and setting/enforcing rules
d. In the event of a rule change, proposed changes will be posted and debated for 1 week.
e. Each match will require only 1 [referee], who’s sole responsibilities in the PvP matches will be that both players are carrying the appropriate equipment, start within the approved boundaries, at the same time, and to verify who the winner of the match is.

I don’t think I can remember a time in my life when there wasn’t a computer or some sort of game to play. I spent my childhood with my hands wrapped around a game controller or a keyboard. With all the Ultimas of the past under my belt, it was only natural to be excited about the idea of Ultima Online.

What fascinates me still is how strong UO is going even after all these years. I grew up where you would play a game for a month, maybe two tops, before growing tired of it. Perhaps you would pull it back out of the closet every now and then to play it again, but overall, the attraction was short-lived. I have been playing UO for over 4 years, and this fact still amazes me. What is it about UO that holds the interests of so many? I believe it is the abundance of different game play styles within the game. You have the ability to do so much and change what it is you wish to do at the drop of a hat. The ability to bake bread one moment, and go kill some dragons the next is one of the diverse aspects of UO. Different people find different things enjoyable, and this creates a complex community because of one game bringing all these factors together.

Ahh… but I have yet to introduce myself. For the past year and a half, I have gone by the name of Silvani. I am currently a Senior Game Master, and I must say that this is the best job I have ever had. Not many people can lay claim to waking up in the morning and being happy about going to work.

I came to work as a GM with almost 3 years of UO gaming experience behind me. During that time, I effectively played almost all aspects of UO. There are so many different play styles within Ultima, and after playing most of them, I can say that I am quite unbiased towards whatever type a person chooses to play as long as rules are followed.

My early days in the game were dark ones indeed, because I played the role of a thief and murderer. As time passed, I took a more active role in the community by becoming an avid role-player and helper to those in need. This branched off even further when I was accepted as an Elder, which allowed me to create quests for other players. I truly enjoyed volunteering and explored other avenues by becoming both a companion and external tester. Finally, the day came when it was posted on the UO.com website that there was a Game Master position open. I leapt at the chance and was lucky enough to be one of the ones hired. The best way I can describe my job is by saying that I’m like a super hero. I help people in need, and swoop down and punish those that are breaking rules.

Though it may seem like GM’s have godlike powers, we are not “all knowing”. Game Masters need help from the players in-game in order to perform their jobs properly. Many people question the wait times associated with calls. I cannot express enough the need to clarify pages that are sent into the global queue. For example, include the name of the person that you are calling about instead of just saying "some guy". This will expedite the process. If something as simple as a name is included, we can start looking for the player and checking into the situation. The simple facts of who, what, when, where, why and how should be the focus of your call. I know it may seem like 40 characters is not very much room, but you don't have to be worried about writing complete sentences when requesting help. You would be surprised at what we are able to understand after all the pages we go through in a day. Many players will even page into the queue with no spaces between their words in order to include all of their information. It's amusing, but it also gets the job done.

Players are truly the core of the community. If it weren’t for the players, Ultima Online would simply be just another single-player game. My thanks go out to each and every one of you for making Ultima Online the wonderful game it is.

Silvani
Player Relations
Ultima Online

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The old man came staggering into the ancient tower. Leaning against the wall, he plucked out an arrow and groaned in pain. He let his healing magic seal up the wound and wandered over to his desk and began to write while muttering something about the damned archers.

Hail to any who read this letter. I bring grave news tonight.

My guildmate Nemesis and I were out hunting ancient wyrms and luckily ran into Baramos and Vadrien Vyn. After the Wyrm had been finished we headed to the gargoyle city to restock our supplies. Baramos mentioned something of a strange castle southeast of the gargoyle city located in the swamps.

Of course, just defeating an ancient wyrm, we laughed at the challenge and headed to the castle. It was surrouned by golems and mages controlling them! We cut through them all and made our way to the doors of the castle and when we opened them, we found the signs of Lord Blackthorn all around the castle.

I then noticed some strange beings who did not like us being at their masters castle apparently, for when I asked who they were, I was answered with a barrage of arrows, followed by their mages and warriors. The warriors are very skilled with a bow and many other weapons, as are their mages very adept in spellcasting.

However, we managed to defeat the few that assualted us. Out of one of the dying men I managed to finally catch their name. He would only say, "Juka". We managed to get a bit deeper into the castle and I slipped into one of the rooms, managing to find this journal and scribble all of it down while having to beat off quite a few of the brutes who came into the room as well!

Shortly after that, we were forced to retreat. We had run low on reagants and were beginning to grow tired. They, however, were still fighting on strong.

Contained in this letter is what I managed to write down from a book named "Kabur's Journal". I hope ye who read this can make better sense of it than I!

Signed,

-Athelstan, Songmaster of the Holy Cross Defenders

The old man rose from the desk and departed to his room for the night still contemplating who these strange creatures were and how they came here....

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Hail and well met!

I would like to invite you all to join the RKB Order of Clergy's Virtue Tour! Every Monday from Jan 14 to Mar 4, we will lead an event for each individual Virtue.

All sessions will begin at RKB Newcastle at 8pm est. If anyone needs a rune, please contact myself, Ludwig Van Foltz, at pigeon 27176393.

For more info, check the calendar (under the Communications button) at www.qflag.com/rkb.

Thank you for your kind ears, hope to see you there!

Ludwig Van Foltz,
Saint Commander (RKB)

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Hail and I Bid Thee Well,

I am Lord Rayne of Lumaria, let me explain why I have such a title. Long ago, I was the trusted council of Lord Galen Kai Tan. I also commanded the Royal Guard of Lumaria. I was an outsider, who knew not what a home was. I was praying to the gods from my land and time at a Shrine when I was approached by Lord Kai Tan. He explained the principles of Lumaria to me and asked if I would like to stay with him at the Tower, I accepted. The Sara Ohm treated me as a son, and instructed me in the teachings of Lumaria. I have come to call these the "Old Ways".

In time, I became an advisor to Galen. It was requested that I begin the tests of the Noch Leige. One by one I passed the tests and upon completing the final test - I was granted the title Sir Rayne. Lord Kai Tan also asked if I would become his trusted advisor. Where he traveled - I was with him. I helped him maintain a pact between the three great cities of Baja at the time - Avalon, Dawn, and Lumaria. Our warriors fought side by side in defense of our cities and our people.

In his wisdom, the Sara Ohm asked if I would command the Royal Guard of Lumaria. We would stand out by our Golden Armor and blood red clothing. Upon forming the Guard - I was granted the title Lord Rayne of Lumaria. A title which I hold to this day. I am proud of my teachings and how I became who I am today. But at the height of Lumaria's glory, a need arose for me to travel far from Lumarian borders.

Upon my return to Lumaria - which was after the Great Quake and the split of the Lands - I found nothing left. I searched the Old Lands for any hint of what used to be. Alas I found nothing. After reading your Spotlight on Lumaria - I am hoping that I can once again find that which I seek. I have only found one other who once lived within the glory of Lumaria. For now - I continue to spread the teachings of Lord Galen Kai Tan - The Great Sara Ohm of Lumaria.

Fair Winds and Safe Travels,

Lord Rayne of Lumaria Minister of Recruits / Acting Guild Master Order of the Dark Dragon (O^D)

Out of Character - I am hoping your piece on Lumaria will once again help me find some of those people who I have been searching for. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It's always sad when a long time player leaves the community. While I may not agree with some of what she said, I think it's also important to look at the fact that she did stay for so long. Most of these games have an average customer life of about 3, maybe up to 6, months. That's it. Four years, in the scheme of the average player is astounding. We still have a lot of 4.5-year vets playing UO (including myself) but yes, eventually, we are going to lose some. Think about how many services you are a part of and then think about how many you have stuck with for that long. Most people don't even keep the same cell phone or pager provider for more than a couple of years and probably wouldn't keep the same cable provider for that long if they had a choice in the matter.

It's extremely difficult to continually evolve a service like UO and not make someone feel alienated. At the same time, if you don't evolve, you'll lose people, probably even faster. The best example I can think of is music. How many artists stay popular recording the same type of music over and over again? Not many. Artists have to continually redefine themselves if they want to continue to record in the top levels of the charts. Would Madonna still be selling records if her music were the same as it was in the 80s? Probably not. But, at the same time, I'd be willing to bet that a lot of her old time fans were upset at the change in her direction and stopped listening. Fans of Metallica in the 80s know what I am talking about and fans of the original Star Wars trilogy (compared to the new direction) do as well. But those changes are necessary, even if they are not universally liked.

….

I'm not going to invalidate someone else's feelings, but I do think the article greatly oversimplifies the issues. At the risk of turning this into yet another Trammel/Felluca discussion I'll also state that I don't agree with the notion that Trammel is what "killed" the RP in UO. For one thing, many people still role-play in UO and continued to well after Trammel opened. Secondly, even at the Faire I had tons of people say to me "thank you for putting in Trammel, I would have quit without it." There are always two sides to every story. I do think some things can be done to make the facet split better and it is something I know the team has discussed quite a bit. Whether Trammel is right or wrong can be debated, but I do think it is hard to argue that the original design for UO needed to be addressed. The notion of "player justice" simply did not work in UO and the original design caused far more people to quit early on than Trammel has. It's easy to look back at the old days with fondness, after all, for many of us that was our first experience in a MMOG and there can be no doubt that some of the original design did create conflict and some of that conflict did build a few strong communities. But, for the most part, that conflict was not a positive thing for the community as a whole and many, many people did quit over it. One only has to look at the reviews of UO to see the damaging perception that it created. Even to this day, with the safely of Trammel fully entrenched in UO, reviews still point to the "PK problem" in Britannia.

But in the end, sometimes people quit because they've simply been doing something for so long that they're "done". Sometimes they just want to try something new for a while. But, obviously, as designers, it's our job to try to keep the game fresh and exciting as much as we can, but in the end, sometimes folks just need a break. I personally know 4-year vets who left UO recently and then came back after seeing some new stuff that caught their interest. [This player] says the new craftables didn't...that just means we have to try harder to find something that will get her back.

When a 4+ year vet leaves, we do take notice. So my only real message to [this player] is, I wish you will...and I hope we can someday win you back. If ever you wish to speak with me in more detail about your reasons for leaving, I would be greatly interested in hearing them. You know my e-mail.
:)
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Players participating in the new Sacrifice virtue system may notice that advancement after level one will appear to proceed very quickly at first and then stop. This is an issue we are aware of, whereby the system is not correctly reporting the progress of Sacrifice beyond level one. It is important to note that you are still gaining the appropriate amount of Sacrifice, and it is only the "status bubbles" display which is incorrect.

We will be addressing this issue as soon as possible, and apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. Please do not call Game Masters for information regarding your status in a virtue due to this bug.

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… Cast spell and bring up target cursor (precast). Next hold down macro for your next spell wait until screen spasms saying something to the effect you are already casting spell. Victim comes into view to attack (lets say someone pops out at a moongate)....release precast spell...hit last target key spell two is gone...hit a spell/last target macro spell three gone. That is a triple speedcast and takes about 3 secs to cast 3 powerful spells.

To really know if you got the speedcasting down try it with the lightning bolts spell. Try casting two lighting bolts the way you do now and compare it to speedcasting method (might have to rearrange some macros on your key board because frankly you can cast two spells faster than you can hit your last target key). It is easy to see the effects because it look just like chain lighting.

Is it as a loop hole for a mage to cast 3 powerful spells? Typical combos are exp exp ebolt, exp flame ebolt, or exp ebolt ebolt. The exp exp ebolt is the wicked one because you don't know it is coming until it is to late.

Basically, it is a method a mage can use to cast two spells without being disturb and the 3rd spell might be disturb but most likely not.

Canyon, Player Relations Training Lead, assured players:

It's true, and considered a legal part of gameplay. Good luck!

In an e-mail group, Evocare commented:

This is new news? Or did this knowledge get lost somewhere down the line? Mages have been using this method for years now, ever since the delay between spells was put into effect (at the time there was no 'last target'macro in built into the client, so it was meant to offset some of the UOA advantage). This "fast casting" method doesn't change the total time from start to finish to cast two spells in a row, it simply allows you to trade a longer delay for your first spell for a shorter delay between the first and second spells. Heck, I'm not aware of any pvp balancing measures that ever *didn't* take this method into account. Maybe this explains a little of why some mages feel underpowered... lordy. :P

--------------------------------------------
Tom "Evocare" Chilton
Lead Designer - Ultima Online

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KD waited patiently for the others. Soon he heard steps in the hallways and then the doors opened, and McDuff and Aegisthus entered the room.

"Thanks for coming, my friends. We have much to discuss" said KD as he waved his hand in a gesture asking them each to have a seat at the large oaken table.

They sat down and KD looked at Aeg and said "Aeg, whats the final report on the Gold Caravan, my friend?"

There was a brief pause, and then Aeg said "Unfortunately we did not get any gold to Britain as we had hoped. 3 or 4 pack horses were able to get to the river just short of Britain, but they were ambushed by DP members there. Our strategy of trying to keep the bad guys busy apparently was very successful, but the pack horses are still far too easy a target for their magery and melee weapons."

KD turned to McDuff and said "McD, what is the report on our negotiations among the various town councils? Are they prepared to cooperate on the free elections as promised?"

"My liege, I believe that most of them are prepared to cooperate. The others are waiting to see if we can deliver the gold in these caravans as promised" said McDuff. "They understand that if we can show them a success rate at getting gold thru to various towns with widespread news of its arrival time and departure, that they are comfortable that PAS will be able to sufficiently protect the citizens that must travel to the towns to vote when the election is held."

"Good, very good. These early Caravans have shown the town councils just how dangerous this mission is. I hope they are equally impressed once we start to deliver more and more gold successfully among the towns. I think its time we start to implement some of the ideas that we discussed, but gradually. If we do this all at once and show how easy it is for us to get this gold thru to particular towns, they will not be as impressed. It is imperative that we stay on schedule for the free elections. I promised freedom for the people, and they shall have it" said KD.

"The various town councils are quite puzzling to me at times. One would think they would be in favor of these elections, but somehow they fear if enough voters are not brought from the wilderness areas, that somehow evil candidates might garner enough votes to be elected to the new government. I cant see that happening, but if that's their fear, I want to make sure we show them that PAS and our allies will do everything in our power to get as many citizens to the polling places in the various towns. The people need a new government, and need it soon."

"Aeg, what wrinkle are we adding to the plan this week?" asked KD. There was a large pause, and then Aeg and McDuff both jumped to their feet, swords drawn, and moved towards KD.

KD rose and turned to see a shadowy figure that blended in with the tapestry hanging near the window. KD laughed for a moment, and then said "No need to worry about her, my friends, she is with us."

The shadowy figure moved closer and then the light from the candles nearby lit up part of her face.

McDuff looked at the girl and said "Erika? I haven't seen you in a long time, is that really you?"

Erika had a devilish grin on her face, and she moved forward towards KD, her necklace flashing in the candlelight. "Yes, my dear McDuff, it is me. I've been .... away on a journey. I have now returned to help my King vanquish the evil ones that want to derail the election. Our new friends will be here soon, to fight by our side .....". Erika's voice trailed off at the end, and KD laughed again.

"McDuff, Aeg, I want you to prepare the plans for the next Caravan and get them to me immediately. I want us to succeed this time. You are no longer under an obligation to travel completely by roads. You may deviate from them at times, but not TOO far please. You are also free to implement multiple routes this time, to help increase our chances. Erika will be sitting this one out, but I expect she will participate in the next one, with some new friends. That is all, my friends. Bring me a report ASAP".

McDuff and Aeg looked at each other with a puzzled face, and slowly walked out of the room, leaving Erika and KD behind.

"I don't trust that wench. She used to be IAS. I still think she's evil. Heck, she's always wearing black clothes!" said Aeg.

McDuff smiled and said "Lets go map out some ideas for the Caravan, that will take your mind off of her. I think you are in love with the girl, to be honest."

Aeg smiled and looked at McDuff, and laughingly replied, "Well, she DOES look pretty hot in black, I'll grant her that."

McDuff slapped him on the back and said "C'mon pal, lets get to work," as they bounded down the hallways of NJ Palace.

The pack horses will once again carry 150K in gold as well some special items, and PAS members have been instructed to not dole out murder counts. However, KD advises that players not be too quick to rez, as lost cons or lag can sometimes cause a count to be unintentionally given. Also, players who are not in PAS have made no such promise, and may choose to give out counts by the heaping spoonful, so PK carefully.

Once a packhorse has fallen, this week, PAS members will attempt to loot the packhorses before the attackers can snag the goods. PAS members will them attempt to carry the gold themselves to Britain. King David has called for PAS Members to line up in Trinsic by 8PM CDT, aand the caravan will leave Trinsic as close to 8:30 PM CDT as possible.

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For those players that enjoy the unique atmosphere the Siege Perilous shard provides, with its challenging ruleset and tight-knit community, we'd like to remind you that the Mugen (pronouned "moo-gen") shard, located in Japan, operates under the same ruleset as Siege Perilous, and is available to all players worldwide! If you haven't tried it yet, and are looking for a new hardcore gaming experience, be sure to log in to Siege Perilous or our most recent addition to the Siege ruleset, Mugen.

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I am pleased to reannounce the 1st Annual Moonglow Festival of Mages (AKA Mage Fest)! This festival will be held on January 18, 19, & 20, and will include the following contests:

• The Drunken Running of the Undead
• Inscribe That Inscription
• A Recall Race
• Alchemist, Heal Thyself!
• Mage Combat
• The First Annual Miss Magery Contest
• A Scavenger Hunt

Over 1.4 Million in gold and items have been contributed towards the prizes by these fine folks: Runeland ™ West, The Council of Honesty, the Vanguards of Virtue, The Knights of Harmony, Truth Love Courage, Twilight Township, and Loren Silverleaf.

For a detailed schedule, please check the official MageFest 2002 website at http://www.agvdesign.com/coh/festival.htm

Be well!

Lord Buzz Aldridge

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Come one come all to participate in the 2002 NRA shootout! The shootout will be held on the 25th of January at 9 pm CST at the Jollier Fairegrounds, Trammel (46*45S, 36*59W). The NRA guild has decided to hold an archery contest to see who is the best in the realm, and, hopefully, to introduce you to some members of the Yew Council. For a minor 500 gold piece fee you can test your skills against the best in the lands and take home a prize!

Prizes are as follows:

First place: Dull Copper Runic Hammer

Second Place: A bow of Scorpion's bane

Third Place: Two of this years snow globes

And for all of you non-grandmasters out there, we will be awarding a Minax Statue to the worse shooter..

Rules are simple. The NRA will provide a bow of grandmaster quality which the contestants will be allowed to take home. Two contestants will take five shots at the butte. Each arrow will be added to get a final score for that round. Scores are blanked after a winner is determined for a round. CONTESTANTS MUST SUPPLY THEIR OWN ARROWS! Also, the Great Pumpkin Guild will be in attendance to bless the event.

Hope to see you all there!

Catseye Yellow

GM of NRA

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Today we removed the original Ilshenar fiction from the BNN. We realize many of you were fond of this fiction but there are a few reasons why we decided to do this.

First of all, these stories were written long before the concept of the scenarios had started. There's nothing wrong with that except that these stories are no longer condusive to our long-term large-scale fiction goals. They were written originally to be played out in a single story. Scenario fiction is meant to be ongoing.

Secondly, the scenarios were designed to reach as many people as possible. Much of the old Ilshenar fiction revolved around the details of smaller not-as-well-known plot lines. With scenario fiction we wanted to start with a fresh plotline and going back to these lesser known stories could cause confusion.

We do take the game fiction very seriously and we felt that it best suited the interests of the current plotline to not let old fiction give you expectations that we cannot fill.

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In a darkened chamber, Lord Blackthorn drifted forwards and backwards, alone and deep in thought. The cloak surrounding his lower torso dragged slightly along the floor with a hiss; the only sound he made while moving about. If he wished, he could easily drift higher above the floor so that his cloak did not touch it, but the sound gave him an odd comfort. He was still unaccustomed to not hearing his own footsteps. It was strange to him that such things could be missed.

In the chamber stood a large stone statue of his former visage that he had once paid an artisan to carve for him. He stared at it as he moved. He had thought of himself as rather handsome then. His status as a nobleman granted him a good deal of comfort. He wasn't uncomfortable in his current form. The new body granted to him by Exodus never pained him, despite the appearance. But occasionally, when one of the controllers looked at his face, he could see the look of slight revulsion. There was a slight curiosity in their stares that wanted to know if there was pain. It was as if their eyes traced along the line between flesh and metal in his face, probing for some visible sign of suffering.

Few others had seen him. He had not yet traveled openly in Britannia since his transformation. No one in the civilized lands would accept him the way he appeared now. So little of him was recognizable as human. The statue of his human self even now looked... unfamiliar. It seemed to represent a different person, one who would not mar his features with the unnatural. It seemed to stare back at him in fear, horrified at the monster before it.

Shooting across the chamber and striking the statue with his human hand, he felt his fist crack in pain along the smooth cold stone. His fingers throbbed in protest and blood slightly darkened his knuckles under broken skin. The statue remained unharmed, as if mocking his remaining frailties. Blackthorn's mind drifted backwards, ignoring the pain and focusing on his last moments in that form.

* * *

He stood inside his fortress, gazing over the landscape of Britain. The King's former castle shone in the daylight from the middle of the great city, calling to him. The castle he should have been standing in.

He had already held conference with the wizard Nystul. The old fool claimed that everything was under control. He rambled on in his endless banter about how the kingdom would survive under his guidance, that there was no need to alert the people. He worried endlessly that the people would panic at the idea of being abandoned by their monarch and that establishing a new one so suddenly would only worsen the matter. The king's lapdog, Dupre, would command the royal faction in Felucca and all other matters were to be handled internally by those under trust of the king.

Blackthorn had argued that the people needed ruling, that a kingdom with no king would decay and eventually die, that it was the duty of the highest nobleman to claim control. He knew that he had the right to rule. Still he was denied. Nystul excused him like some commoner. It burned him to the depths of his soul that the fools would rather see no one rule the kingdom rather than grant him any power in the absence of the king. The man who had countless times endangered his own people, bringing turmoil down upon them again and again.

Before he could react, his entire body became surrounded by light and slowly, his vision faded to blackness. As all thought left him, he knew that someone had taken him against his will with magic. Ages seemed to pass before he again felt thoughts begin to form across his mind. All at once consciousness rushed upon him and he opened his eyes. He stood in a dim room with only a few candles providing enough light to see. Before him stood what appeared to be three humans with darkened skin, wearing long crimson robes. They kneeled before him calmly.

"Who dares insult me with this abduction?! Where am I?!" Blackthorn bellowed.

"Forgive my intrusion of your privacy, Lord Blackthorn." A strange voice like the buzzing of insects seemed to come from everywhere at once. A sound like a thousand quiet clocks hummed throughout the room constantly and seemed to combine with the mysterious voice as it spoke in some bizarre harmony. "I desired an audience with you to discuss matters of great importance. I assure you that you are in no danger. My servants will bring you refreshment if you so desire." Blackthorn noticed a pattern of lights emanating from the darkness along one of the walls. They seemed to brighten as if on fire when the voice would speak.

"I have nothing to discuss with those who hide in the darkness! Show yourself or release me this instant! I could have you killed for this transgression!" Blackthorn turned quickly and looked about the room as he shouted. He could see no one save the three men kneeling before him.

"My true form lays elsewhere, Lord Blackthorn. I am not human as you are. I am called Exodus. I have brought to this place to offer you Britannia."

Blackthorn hesitated. Somehow this being knew of his desire to rule. "How will you offer me that which you do not possess? What are you if you are not human?"

“I was born of the great cataclysm and forged by time itself. I am the union.” A whirring sound rose for a moment and faded. Blackthorn noticed the gem-like lights shone brighter than they had before.

“You speak in riddles.” He took a step forward towards the lights. “Show yourself to me or end your business with me now!”

The lights grew almost blindingly bright and began to flicker fiercely. The whirring sound grew and blended with Exodus’ voice, now louder than ever. “As you wish.” Blackthorn’s mind exploded with imagery. He fell to his knees grasping at his temples. He saw images of Mondain’s castle.

A father… a mother… Time was their kingdom. Power and magic flowed with their very whims. All power came from the Gem. The Gem was precious. I was precious. I was loved. I was to be successor. I was to have the power. The machine… The machine from time’s gate… The machine will grant me power. The demon. His power will be mine. His power is tremendous. The machine will make this happen. Father’s love is the machine. Mother’s love is the demon. I am loved. I will have the power. The Gem… The Gem is threatened! The Gem… so precious… no! No!! All power came from the Gem. The Gem is broken… the world is broken… such destruction…. Such cataclysm. The world is broken. Mother! Mother no! Father is dead. Mother is gone. I am gone.

Time is broken… the whole castle gone… Time must change… time must give way to the destruction… time must flow. I am gone. I am broken. I must give way to the destruction… I must change… I am the machine… I am the demon… I am the union… I am reborn… I am not home… I must find home… Time is broken… Time is wrong… I must wait… wait… The time will come. Home will come.

The lights on the far side of the room suddenly dimmed and all at once Blackthorn was again himself. He panted, rising from the cold chamber floor where he kneeled. His hands shook as he lowered them from his head. His face was frozen in horrified amazement. “I… I saw… thousands and thousands of years… in moments.”

“I have waited for you, Blackthorn,” the voice droned. “The time has come and I have found home again. You have precious knowledge of this world I have been away from for so long.”

“You wish to conquer Britannia?”

“I wish to see you in your proper place as Britannia’s ruler. I can give you the power to make this happen.”

Blackthorn hesitated. “And what do you have to gain by allowing me to rule? Surely you don’t expect me to believe that you wish to simply hand me the throne as a gift?”

“I seek to fulfill my original purpose.” The lights twinkled dimly and the voice lowered in pitch. “You know this from what I have shown you. I was once meant to inherit the land as its absolute guardian, to watch over all and to know all. To be the world, to maintain the power that controls it. I can give you that power. I can give you that control.”

Blackthorn spoke slowly. “How… what sort of power will you give me?”

Again the lights shone brightly and Blackthorn saw images in his head. “I will grant you a new body. And new troops to command.” He could see his body being changed, as if a thousand skilled tinkers had created new limbs for his form. He could feel himself inside the body and the power that coursed through his veins. It was like nothing else he had ever felt before… such incredible power at his command! His senses expanded further than he had ever imagined possible. He felt invincible. The sensation slowly faded away and he was his human self again. Instantly he experienced a longing to feel that sense of power again. It intoxicated him.

Exodus waited a moment and then spoke more quietly. “Lord Blackthorn, will you accept this power? Do you wish to rule?”

“I… yes… yes, I will accept. I accept!”

“Excellent.” The lights flickered and Blackthorn could feel himself being enveloped in warm energy.

* * *

The statue of his human self still seemed to stare down upon him like a disapproving sentry. He looked again at his hand. The bleeding was slight but still a reminder of weaknesses he once possessed. His other arm with its massive claw rose up and he stared at it. A hideous smile spread across his face. Instantly Blackthorn’s great mechanical appendage swung around and smashed the statue into thousands of pieces. Dust swirled and settled where the statue once stood.

“Others will join me.” He snarled, relishing the feeling of power.

* * *

Dasha struggled to pull herself up one more time as she made her way up the mountain. Days ago she had arrived in this strange place with the Juka fortress. Now she was badly battered. The blast of energy from the cloaked being and the fall off of the fortress wall had nearly killed her. Now her healing magics were failing for some reason, as if magic was different here. She had just barely managed to save her own life with the meager spells and escape before the patrolling Juka could find her.

She decided that she had made her way up the mountain far enough to be safe for a short while. She doubted anyone would spot her, and in the meantime she could rest and hopefully feel well enough to attempt healing magic later. Sitting against a rock, she winced at the pain in her bones. If the spells failed again she wouldn’t be going very far.

She looked out over the land and tried to get her bearings. Things here appeared familiar, yet foreign. She felt too dazed to try and make any sense of it. Behind her a few pebbles fell and she cursed herself for not hearing so obvious an attacker. She spun quickly to find someone standing before her.

“You!”

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When thinking about expanding the world of Britannia with monsters that had a unique feel and personality who else would we want to partner with than the master of fantasy art and creatures himself, Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn? So, we pursued the idea of having him create concept art for Ultima Online and he was as excited about the opportunity to be involved in a project wrapped around Ultima Online as we were about the cool, edgy, and totally unique art he could bring to the world.

One of the things we liked best about Todd is the detail orientation that he is known for both in his art and his figures. He brings so much depth of character to his designs that they take on a personality just by looking at the hunch of their shoulders or the way they hold their heads. His characters have a life to them, and that was an exciting prospect to bring into Britannia.

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Yes it was a sad day. The GSS Keep in Britain Felucca on the Lake Superior shard closed to the public.

The Keep was deep in history on the LS shard. From the time it had opened it had 60,000 visitors before Trammel opened. It was the first major Vendor Mall on LS. The owner, Gor, never charged rent and never disciminated on who could place a vendor. The keep is so old it was and still is on a hay field which is a guard zone. Customers could shop in absolute safety with the protection of town guards. Gor by making his Keep public helped to make a great deal of player vendors very wealthy.

The opening of the Mall brought an expected 1500 players to the event. Screens were filled with players coming to the event. Gor and his staff had waiters, waitresses, and gift givers. For over 4 hours Gor's staff handed out food-ale-addons-weapons-armor-furniture-and countless other things. Never before was there ever such a giveaway. Thus the extremely high number of attendees to the event.

Gor has closed the keep for many reasons, one important one is that Felucca is a ghost town, others are his private concern.

No one from OSI ever recognized Gor or his keep. He was not a role player. He was a regular player. The powers that were in UO ignored him and his work. His place was the best known place on LS before Trammel came. No town, no Mage Tower, nothing was better known than the GSS Keep.

It is a sad day to see it closed.

Thank you Gor, you had a great deal in about a gazzillion Dennar made bows being seen on the LS shard. Not to mention the coming out of Bob, and even Flint Fireforge.

Good Luck Buddy!

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Greetings everyone!

A PvP Tournament is coming your way this Saturday at 7pm PST. It will be held at a well-known place in Feluca, The Dawn Mage Tower. The coordinates are: 120' 40" N, 58' 13" E. There is also a rune to the tower inside the Dawn Outpost in Ocllo, right next to the bank.

Entry fee is 10k. All of the money will go to the winner of the contest. I also will be throwing in 25k and a choice of Regs, DP Weapons, or Full plate.

Each match will consist of three people. Three men inters, one man leaves. The rules are simple. They are:

-No Pets
-No summoned creatures
-No poisoned weapons
-No magic weapons (Except magic bows. Magic bows will ONLY be aloud)
-No invisibility of any sort
-All combatants will target a designated judge before the match starts
-Only combatants are aloud in the ring
-No looting.
-No time limit

Sign up will take place from 6pm-7pm PST. We ask all of you to please be on time so that we can start the tournament on schedule. We thank all of you wizards are warriors! We will see YOU there!!

Gandalf, Avatar of Truth

and

The Kingdom of Dawn

Fight Club of Great Lakes is proud to announce the return of Fight Night, the one on one PVP Tournament! On Sunday, January 27th, at 8 PM as the sun sets in the eastern sky, Fight Night returns.

This week's prize is 300k in gold! Entry fee is 10k. Sign up now! Casinos open at 7 PM EST on Fight Night!

For more information, please see our website. This includes location, rules and more!

Arcaneus

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Evil Roleplaying Course at Lightbringer Academy

What: An Evil Roleplaying course
When: Friday night, 7pm PST, January 18th
Where: Lightbringer Academy (See Sidepanel for information)

Ever wanted to make your thief a bit more presentable? Or how about your Villainous warrior who has no direction? Have a mage who is just not wicked enough?

If so, then please stop by Lightbringer Academy this Friday night (Jan. 18th) at 6pm Pacific Standard Time. This class will be taught by Guldan Blackmaw, Tao Master and Warlock. Classes are free as always, and it will be a very informative discussion on how to really portray a less than virtueous character. As all classes, this is sponsered by PAS and the Vesper Dragoon Corps.

PAS Website: http://www.saber.net/~pisciotta VDC Website: www.homestead.com/vesperdragoons/home.html

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The Sword of Power, my heart fell, my fear increased for the poor girl ten-fold. Anna sat, her face still pale, eyes distant as her tale continued. Nothing could pull me away from this, her voice was full of raw emotions as she drew upon the memories so fresh in her mind.

“I have been hiding, for the most part. Keeping to the safety of the YMCA and under the protection of my Guildmaster. Until a few days ago...”

She paused a moment, I watched as her face transformed from terror to a look of absolute adoration and longing. The change was startling to say the least. She leaned back against the table, her hand still holding the pack tightly but her body seemed to melt as she continued on.

“We sat at the Britain Bank, Skyshroud and I, looking to purchase a mare for me, as I had finally trained enough to be able to control one. It was then that I saw him, his skin pale and almost luminescent in the near darkness, his smile most enticing, his very being exuded an aura of self-assuredness and charm. This man approached us, and began to talk with Sky in a friendly manner that certainly suggested that they knew each other.

I silently watched as they spoke of acquaintances and various other topics, though I hardly took notice, I was lost in his darkly handsome looks and his quick easy smile. I hardly noticed when Sky introduced me to him, his name was Pheonix and as I fumbled my words I know I must have looked like a terrible fool. We spoke briefly, I could feel his eyes boring into me, though not unpleasantly.”

Anna looked down, in a seeming attempt to hide the smile that had crept upon her lips, her cheeks flushed with color, which was a relief to see.

“It was a night or two later that I saw him again..” Anna sighed and broke off a moment to regain her thoughts. “But time has seemed to cease to exist for me altogether and so nights and days and weeks have become jumbled in my mind. Please do forgive any discrepancies in my tale. I am not...quite myself.”

I nodded solemnly to her. Offering a small smile of encouragement, for I could hardly contain my excitement at her telling.

“He came to the YMCA, his armor bearing the same name as his own, his easy smile quickly gaining my favor. He asked me to go away with him, and I readily agreed. Sky looked at me and at my pouch that held my most powerful burden and shook his head in warning. As I look back on it now...I do not think Skyshroud knew much about Pheonix, for surely he would not have let me leave.”

She frowned then, her delicate brows knitting together, lips pulling down in a quivering frown. My heart went out to her. She collected herself a moment then continued on.

“He was so kind, and so dark and mysterious. I should have known better, but I could not resist him, there was a part of me that refused to turn away from him. After he and I spoke and spent long hours together he bid me farewell. Kissing my cheek so gently...and then...the kiss upon my neck. I felt weak at his touch, and I stood as he walked away, in wonder of him.”

I looked at Anna, she looked drawn and tired now. Her face portraying a mixture of fear and elation. She closed her eyes and leaned back upon the chair, her breathing became low and shallow. Soon I knew that she had fallen asleep. Perhaps for the best as she looked as though she needed it.

I was about to discard the scroll when I noticed a scribble at the bottom...

PS. Joram, I do not know where she has gone! I worry so much for her, I left her to rest that eve and when I returned the following day she had vanished. I fear for her life...

So we now know who holds the Sword of Power. I sense a great feeling of dread in the air, the battle to recover the master sword is upon us...

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Hail thee fair Britainnian’s,

yesterday I mailed OSI that the last scenario has not been activated on Mugen. So they promised me to activate it today.

This morning my character, the fair Feanor, rode to Lord British’s castle to search for Nystul. He found him at the stables. Nystul told me that he needs many items to complete his tower, so he can reveal the dark devices of Exodus after it is build.
He needs:

100.000 iron ingots
50.000 shadow iron ingots
250 clockwork assemblies
100 power crystals
5000 gears
5000 gems

Please help us to build the tower and break Exodus power over the gargoyles. The gargoyles need our help ! And I have heard they will reward us with their knowledge about stone and glass items.

So, go out and mine iron, slay evil Golems and gather precious gems to support Nystul!

With best wishes,
Feanor

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Sorry, that is only temporary. We've just added a clarification on the accessing of Ilshenar to our read-only FAQ section. Here's what was just posted there:

===========================

If you just put in your brand new LBR CD from the FanFest and are finding that you can access Ilshenar in 2D even before the code for the new expansion is supposed to be live... it's okay, that's supposed to happen.

The data on the CD contains everything necessary to enter Ilshenar in 2D. The LBR code is not active, though, on the public servers, and the shards are not yet checking for your LBR registration code before it allows access into Ilshenar. This is why people using the UO: LBR CD are able to access it in 2D now (and why it works on each separate account on that computer). However, once the shards are ready and the UO: LBR code has been activated on them, the shards will begin to check to make sure you have the proper registration before it allows you to access Ilshenar in 2D. This means that, at some point in time in the near future, you'll find that you will not be able to access Ilshenar in 2D unless you are playing on a UO: LBR-enabled account.


__________________
Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems

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[…]Truth be told, the BOD system is intended to be a fun diversion... something that can add a twist to the daily routine of a blacksmith in UO. It wasn't designed to be a fundamental change to the way people run a blacksmithing business, or an improvement to the supply/demand values of the items blacksmiths can already create.

In addition, I find it hard to find a serious fault with the BOD system in regard to its effect of causing many more players to want to have blacksmith characters. Is it a bad thing that we introduced a presumably fun new metagame that caused a character type to become considerably more popular?
Although it has increased the supply of blacksmithing goods for now, it seems to me that causing players to want to play characters they hadn't previously considered would be something we want to achieve more often! If anything, it would seem we need to achieve this same level of success for many more character types, making it more difficult for players to be self sufficient in every aspect of the game.

Ultima Online has a long way to go to fulfill its potential (I really believe that, I don't think it's just a cute buzz phrase), and I don't feel that we can allow ourselves to be paralyzed by a fear of change with regard to how players currently play the game. I feel confident that as time goes on, the positive impact we have on gameplay will outweigh the inevitable ripples we'll see in our subscriber's play patterns. The only alternatives appear to be stagnation (which certainly won't be an effective method of extending UO's lifespan), or the risk of watching the competition blow past while we make conservative changes that will likely be neither compelling nor speedy.

It is very valuable to us to hear exactly what impact our changes have had (and why), so we can evaluate what steps we need to take in the future to correct any serious problems, prevent them from happening again, and hopefully wind up with a much more fun world for everyone. So, I certainly don't want to stop hearing your comments regarding the BOD system and its impacts on the blacksmithing world. However, I can't promise that all problems will be solved with the wave of a magic wand, although I do feel UO can still be a really fun game (and progressively better) for long time to come.

--------------------------------------------
Tom "Evocare" Chilton
Lead Designer - Ultima Online

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This system slipped from Publish 15 and is currently on the schedule for
Publish 16. Thanks to Krum's leet programming skills, the system in general
is working as it should. However, a small design flaw allowed some
exploitability by killing shopkeepers. Krum and I have worked up a solution
and we're getting it implemented. (Standard disclaimers apply; my stating
it's on the schedule doesn't mean that it can't be pulled later.)

Two pieces of the system did make it into Publish 15:

1. Players are able to sell up to 500 items back to shopkeepers in one
transaction, rather than selling things 5 at a time.

2. All NPC shopkeepers will now have unlimited funds for transactions. On
occasions where NPC shopkeepers must be deleted & re-spawned, they will
immediately resume normal restocking patterns rather than restocking at
slower-than-normal rates in the days that follow their re-spawning.

--
Vex
Designer, UO Live

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Archery-

Poison Arrows was brought up in both the Archery/Fletching and Magery/Alchemy sessions. The idea was to poison the bow before each shot and not the arrows. It’s harder to write code for poisoning the arrows than it would be the bow. At least, that’s the impression I got. I can see this happening in real life. No archer would carry a set of already poisoned arrows. The shooting timer allows just enough time to poison the bow with a good UOAssist macro. The chances of hitting with the arrow would not increase. Only the additional variable of being poisoned would be added.

The issue of arrows disappearing after some distance was discussed. They will look at that hard. Also, they want to check the timing of the shots. One guy kept complaining that he had to wait and wait and wait to shoot. I informed him that if you move 6 steps, you WOULD get a shot off. Yes, the shooting timer is in there, but moving 6 steps resets the timer (I think) and you shoot again. We covered the issue of the delay when you arm with a bow you have to move to fire. They will look into the coding for that as well.

When someone mentioned the exploding arrows and spell effects to arrows, Adrick was writing it down. They are considering allowing the ability to do more damage with a heavy crossbow versus plate. The idea of Concussion (blunt) arrows was tossed about. And the development team members considered the idea of adding spell effects to arrows.

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Soft pellets of rain fell from an overcast sky and dropped through the leaves of the great tree. Rum-pity, rum-pity the leaves were like drumsticks drumming the air of rain. The second figure moved to stand before the first, who remained seated on the stone. Their eyes briefly met as the second walked past the dark clad human who rose to follow.

Worms began to crawl their fleshy bodies out of the mud, which surrounded the moongate. Their pitiful existence was nothing more than food for the fish. Likely a local would arrive to snag the creatures for a Saturday afternoon break. By the time the fisherman arrived to fetch his bate the two would be long gone.

Oh, how the tree begged to speak, to bark out a warning to the virtues of Britannia. Having witnessed the strangers arrival the tree wanted to witness to all who might hear, but there was nothing this towering creation could do. Rain continued to fall and a bolt of lightning danced across the sky a few moments before thunder rolled. Evil walked the road toward the Yew Graveyard, their feet sloshing in the gradually soaking underbrush. Life was beginning to awaken just as a few souls made deals with death to arise as walking undead. The first figure clasped his hands together and mumbled a few words. A moment later the two were walking over the charred bones of several skulls and finger bones. While the undead held purpose the two men were on a mission and would not be troubled by distractions.

"Are ye certain that he is to meet us here, sire?" the first figure curiously asked. A local tavern stood before them. The door remained closed to the world, not yet ready to welcome its morning guests before another day began. "Brother," said the second figure, "doth ye think we'd be summoned unto this place if he is not here to meet us?" His question not expecting an answer, they both knew that this was no ordinary summons.

Outside of Britain and through the mountain pass to the west evil stirred. It kneeled and placed its forehead to the ground before the artifact and mumble ever so quietly, "O-bliv-ion, masssster of dark-ness...hear thy fa-ithful ssssservant. The age of chaossss once wassss and once more sssshall be, the age of vir-tue sssshal crub-ble and the age of Ob-livion sssshal reign sssu-preme. I put forth my sssoul to the massster of dess-truction, passsss it to the reveal of know-ledge," Revealer hissed and continued the Oracle of Goumere.

Razor S Edge and Marious sat upon a bench in front of the tavern and waited the tavern keeper to open the doors. They had arrived early.

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Four Questions - Four Answers

for the Moonglow City Council

 

This is the sixth part in a loose sequence with the intention to introduce the people holding positions in the Moonglow City Council.

The goal is, that you better get to know them and can thus directly address the correct person, if you want a problem solved in Moonlgow.

 

 

Today: Kabach Cryonax  - the constable of Moonglow.

 

 

 

Q: Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

 

A: Well I am 31 years of age and was born and raised in Yew. I was trained as a bard but soon got bored of that profession and started to learn the skills needed to become a mage. One day feeling so fed up that it hurt I ran into a moongate opened by a more powerful mage. I know not to this day where I ended up but I then rapidly jumped blind into another mage sumoned moongate and ended up on this island of Moonglow. There by co-incidence I met Yoldran who with Zinethi was recruiting for the Council of Moonglow which was shortly to be created. I turned up and was elected Guard Captain. I have since left that post to become Town Constable but with Yoldran we are the only members to be present from the Council's genesis. Since arriving in the 'Glow I have met my wife, Rebecca one of the Town Guards and we have children and are very happy together.

 

 

Q: You are the constable of Moonglow. What do you do for the Council in this position?

 

A: This has become more complicated in recent months with the creation of a new Justiciar position on the Council. I am in charge of the upholding of law and order and the investigation of crimes within the boundaries of Moonglow - which includes the island. I cannot press charges however as this is decided upon by the Justiciar based on whatever evidence I may have found. I also command the Town Guards on operations that occur within the boundaries of Moonglow. The guards  also can opereate beyond Moonglow's borders and in those cases while the Constable may be involved he is not in command. The Captain would be so in these circumstances.

 

 

Q: Stopping crime completely - even if only in one town - seems an impossible task. What do you think would be needed in a society to realise such a goal?

 

A: Well yes you are right, of course it is an impossible dream to wipe out crime entirely, and if I did I would be making myself unemployed *laughs*. However we can aim for a crime free society. There are two things that will lead to a land relatively free of crime. The first of which is a large professional and skilled police and guard force. So criminals in Moongow will be frightened of being caught. The second is that the punishments meated out to these criminal elements are so harsh that they will not or can not ever commit crime again. This is all it takes. A criminal who thinks he will not be caught will commit crime again and again. If the criminal thinks he will get off lightly when and if he is caught  will take the risk. So catch the evil doers and make them pay. I fear that this is where I disagree with many of the council as they are far too soft on wrong doers and this can only encourage other malcontents and recidivists.

 

 

Q: What are your visions for Moonglow's future?

 

A: I would like to think that Moonglow would be a peaceful haven for all peace and knowledge loving members of Britannian society. We have already proved our openess taking in huge numbers of refugees after Minax's attack on Trinisic and we have suffered pirate attacks and invasions from other spheres. So we must be tolerant and welcoming but we must also be strong and brave.  I would like to see the Lycaeum Academy and the Guards both growing in strength hand in hand. The Lycaeum to teach - both adults and children - to continue the knowlege of our forebears and the guard to protect the scholars and of course the other citizens. If I could design a new symbol for Moonglow it would be a mailed fist holding a learned book. The book for education and knowledge, the mailed fist for the armed might that stands behind that knowledge to protect and defend it. This is my vision.

 

 

 

Many thanks for this interview!

If you want further information about the Moonglow City Council please head to the skypage: http://stop.at/moonglow

 

Yoldran,

-- Town Crier of Moonglow. 

Thanks

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Now that Sacrifice is live, I'd like to use this thread to get feedback. Mostly what I am looking for is:

1. Any bugs you have found. If it is an exploit that lets you take advantage of the system, then don't post it here, just PM me. Other bugs can be posted here.

2. Feedback on the gumps. Do you like the descriptions and is it useful in telling you where you are along the path of Sacrifice?

3. For those of you in 3D, what do you think of the particle effect? We're going to use similar particles for the other virtues as well.

4. Feedback on the inferface for sacrificing for monsters and using your virtue power.

5. Anything else you feel we should know about the system.

I'm not looking for whether you like the idea of the system or not in this thread, although you are welcome to start a new thread about that. Feedback on specifics of the system are perfectly ok though of course.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Five specific resources will be affected in how they are purchased from, and sold to, by NPC shopkeepers. These five commodities are: leather, ingots (iron), wood (boards), crossbow bolts, and arrows. These changes are designed to help accommodate consumers, allowing them to purchase these five commodities in bulk, while not excluding the efforts of related resource gathering professionals.

The details of this update are listed below.

Five specific resources will be affected by this change, referred to in this document as the “five commodities.” They are:

• leather
• ingots (iron)
• wood (boards)
• crossbow bolts
• arrows

These NPC shopkeepers will track the sales and purchases of these commodities, and adjust their prices based on how much of these items they buy from or sell to players.

• NPC shopkeepers will always have 500 of their respective commodity for sale.
• Each NPC will track prices individually for each of the five commodities.
• If the NPC sells more of these commodities to players than she has bought from players, her price for that commodity will increase.
• If the NPC doesn’t buy or sell any of a particular commodity, her price for that commodity won’t change.
• If the NPC buys and sells similar amounts of a particular commodity, his or her price for that commodity won't change.
• If the NPC buys more of a commodity from a player than he or she sells to players, his or her price for that commodity will decrease.

Players will be able to buy or sell up to 500 of each of these five commodities from an NPC shopkeeper at one time.

Players will be able to sell these five commodities to related NPC shopkeepers for 1 gold piece less per item than that shopkeeper’s current selling price, regardless of the original price paid for those items.

All NPC shopkeepers will now have unlimited funds for transactions. On occasions where NPC shopkeepers must be deleted & re-spawned, they will immediately have 500 of their respective commodity available, instead of restocking at slower-than-normal rates in the days that follow their re-spawning.

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Any who are interested are to meet in front of the Moonglow Counselor's Hall on January 19th, at 22:30 JST. No dragons, mares, or any other such pets are allowed. Check their site for full details.

The e-mail address of the one responsible appears at the end of the film, and any who are so inclined may send their comments there.

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The Skara Brae Rangers and the House Stonesoul are proud to sponsor a storytelling contest at the Skara Brae Fairegrounds on January 26th at 5pm CST.

We will only be taking 10 entrys, so its first come first serve. The story must be in a roleplaying nature and it may be no longer than 8 minutes. If its longer than 8 minutes, it will be disqualified. There will be a panelist of three judges for the stories.

The Prize? 150,000 gold to the winner!

Hope to see you all there, I will be taking applications for the storytelling contest at [email protected].

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That's right, it is another week and another TWO auctions. And we have tons of new things on the horizon! Keep your eyes peeled to the www.impys.net pages for updates.

Auctions this week:
Wednesday, January 16th, 9pm by the Eastern Sky
Thursday, January 17th, 9pm by the Eastern Sky

This week we have piles of Armor and Weapons, as well as:
Holiday Statues, Globes and Bells
SOS Bottles
Executioners Caps
Blessed Blue Sandals and Dark Grey Sandals
Ranger Armor
Ask and Answer Globe
Daemon Bone Armor
Wig
Pile of T-Maps
Coal Ingots
Lich Statue
Rocks
Coal Armor
and a Gold Box

As always, Runes to Riches and the Mystery Chest games will also be played this week following the auction, so please stick around and take a chance with lady luck. We'll also be posting a new "You might be a ? if..." statement to the Bulletin Board every so often. Each week we'll give 50k in Impy Auction credit to the response we like the most. The more humerous the answer, the more likely you'll be to win. Impy has asked that you please stable your pets before the auction as he is allergic to wet fur.

If you don't have a rune, please stop by one of rune vendors: StarLite (Vesper, Trammel), next door to the RD Stables (Felucca), the Sandlewood Box Inn (Dead Heaven, Felucca), Kazola’s TreeTop Keg and Winery (Felucca), Cove Merchant’s Guild and Blacksmith Shoppe (Cove, Felucca), the Mystic Portal (Trammel), the Garden City Mall (Cove, Trammel).

~Impy's Staff
www.impys.net

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From the Chronicles of Elder Raticker:

Moving swiftly down the academy corridors, White Lotus moved towards the chamber which held the final plans to the destruction of the so called 'Circle' infesting the land of Sosaria. Meeting her halfway was John Von Darkmoor and various aides ready for battle.

"John wait here while I obtain the formula and we will gather our forces and head for The Temple of Mondain. We must keep this quiet, as I have been unable to contact Mordain to announce our coming. Our window of opportunity does not allow for certain protocal to be observed." she announced as she moved towards the door at the end of the immense hallway. "Take your men and wait outside the gates of Moonglow. The major has assigned five squads of guards to take with us."

The hour was late, darkness had already settled over The Temple, and the alien was active within the chambers of Raticker. Sealing the large doors to his private chamber, he began the spell which would summon the other eight members of the deadly circle. Tonite was the time to open the gate for the entity seeking to invade this dimension. Raticker's large living quarters were private and deep within the ancient structure. The guards had been given strict instuctions not to patrol this area, with the threat of death to themselves and their families should they wish to disobey the Elder's orders. Everythings was set. A green gate opened and there stood his brother's and sister's who would help bring a new order to this land.

"Friends, we are on the brink of a new age for this dimension. It is rich with vitality and innocent blood. We will grow strong here, and be able to enter other worlds and conquer them as well. Nothing can stop us. We have shown dominance and the citizentry tremble at our appearance. Soon we will move into the Star Chamber and witness the appearance of our master and Lord. You all have done well, and will be rewarded for your efforts." stated Raticker as he prepared the Shimmering Globe which would transport them to their secret chamber.

Outside the city of Moonglow, White Lotus gathered her troops. Turning to Shaddock of PHP and Valhalla of NOV she stated, "You know you do not have to do this. It will be dangerous and we could lose. Even if we win, we do not know how the priests of The Temple will react to our encroachment onto their lands."

"If we do not do this, we shall perish anyway. Mordain will simply have to be made to understand. Elder Raticker should be able to make his fellow brother's understand we saved him as well." replied Valhalla. "There should be no problems. Time is of the essense if this potion is going to work. We must move now."

With that Lotus opened a gate into one of Raticker's antechamber's. It led to his private library and was not in much use. Everyone was on foot with no metal armor to announce their arrival. This mission was considered a suicide attack and each man was prepared to die in this cause to save Sosaria. Slipping into library, all wore black and had increased their skills for sneaking around by drinking dexterity potions. If all went well the circle would be taken by suprise. Hoping they had arrived prior to the Shimmering Circle was erected, Lotus felt their plan could work. All they needed was to get the alien presense out of Raticker's body.

The large area of Raticker's quarters was almost full with the eight members standing their. All in green it was hard to spot Rat. But there he was. Gloating over there ever so close victory. Exploding onto the scene the men erupted into melee. Quickly teleporting next to Raticker, the two mages injected the potions into Raticker's arms and hoped for the best. Naming the alien and causing a rift in course of time, the alien was forced out of Raticker's brian. Being disoriented and confused, all Rat saw was battle in his private apartments.

Many had fallen and the seven aliens remaining began to link to summon their deadly Azure Fire. Lotus screamed for Raticker to order them to stop.

"Halt!" cried Raticker.

Mystic Rose turned in confusion, while Farbanti mistep and was poisoned by a quick cut of John Von Darkmoor's weapon. He dropped to the floor in agonzing pain. Lotus took this chance to continue with the injections of the potions which freed the citizens of Sosaria from the alien intruders. Finally, it was over. With ten dead and five close to it, the aliens had been thwarted. Darma exclaimed, "Leshy what are we doing here?" Leshy looked up dazed by the events and stated "I have no idea. But I intend to find out. Lotus what is going on?"

Pounding could be heard on the out chamber doors as Frederick and Raal demanded entrance into Raticker's areas. Opening the doors, Raticker calmed everyone down, and began to explain the plight which had gripped himself and the other former members of the circle. Extending his thanks to Lotus and the brave members of her fighter, Raticker moved the men and forces into The Temple's main chamber to fully explain what had happened.

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The hallowed halls of antiquity
Yet withstand the test of ages.
Boulder and brick and moss covered stone
Still the beacons that stand alone
Against the fall of night,
and the demise of virtue.

A small blossom in the fetid lands
Fragile and despondent yet
Tended by loving hands
that regret
no pain
or loss
or suffering
that to all this message hopeful brings
news of honors and other things!

It just so happens, in these war-torn dales
Where life is fleeting, as courage fails
That after the Chaos and Ashes are
swept aside,
what remains, belongs to all.
Both those who tested
and those who tried
no matter who lay bested
or who had died
A city of wonder, a city fair
Every soul's city - The City of Paxlair

The storms of time may leave a weathered mark
yet new seeds sprout
from dormant soil
as secret servants toil
to bring you out
For an evening of Celebration and Lore,
and yet more
History in the making.

Rites of Honor, the Assumption of Power
come meet our new Mayor, so dour
yet so giving and sweet that you should bring flowers!
Contests of might, and those of magic
A quest whose outcome we hope is not tragic
(no promises!)
A gateway to places seen by few,
all these things and more, await you!

For you see, Lords and Ladies,
It is time for Paxlairs 4th anniversary!

This shall occur on January 19th:

6:00pm Test of Brawn and Skill and
Clanging weapon thingies.
Tower arena. Overseen by the
Noble Paladin Cross MacLeod and Chyna

7:00pm A tour of unique and interesting
places. Overseen by Winmere.

7:30pm What fun can you have with summoned
Beasts? Find out at the same time
the New Mayor oversees the contest!
Overseen with love by Mayor Minsk!

Sometime after that: A Quest! Is that
the wailing of that strange spirit,
the Gatekeeper? *shivers*

9:00pm A ceremony of recognition and honors
As the Old Man applauds Mayor Minsk's
Acendancy as Mayor.

Lying around just about all over, shall be tomes of History regarding tales of Paxlair for the perusal of those who don't know about the vast lore and history of the town.

Mage and Warrior visitors, please see me for a potential 'derby' as you visit. If enough people participate, a nice prize awaits the top hat. Do you have nerves of steel and the luck of the devil?

Oh! contests will have prizes, as usual. Seeing as how it is the town's Anniversary, I encourage one and all to bring gifts!

*smiles*

Zog the Fishmonger

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Hail all and well met!

It is with great pleasure I announce the Grand Opening Party of the Taverna Stratica. Inside you will find a bar to catch up on all the gossip, a meeting room for guild functions, a rune library for ease of travel, a roof top vineyard with fountain, and the Museum to the Virtues!!

The site for the Taverna Stratica is the UOSS Tower (121o 12' N - 58o 4' E), east of Dungeon Wrong.

The Grand Opening will take place on Saturday 26th January at 5pm PST. There will be a raffle held, with everyone guaranteed a prize, from valorite/diamond jewelry, to glacial staves, and more!!

So come, marvel at the wonders of the Virtues, or simply drown yourself in ale at the bar!!

Your humble servant,
Lord Joram Soulrift

Please do not bring pets!

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A sampling from this article:

The new system had to be interesting to a developing blacksmith, allow skill gain, and give ongoing and measured rewards to the player. In many ways, the system needed to parallel the “treasure map” system that has been present (and quite successful) in Ultima Online for several years now. I went to the drawing board with nothing specific in mind, just a lot of rough ideas and a chance to create something new - which is an opportunity designers on a live team crave but rarely receive! After bouncing ideas off other designers and players, I decided on a course of action that involved making a totally new system that would exist separately from any specific crafting skill, yet still enhances blacksmithing by essentially working in tandem with it. Definitely more work then making a few simple additions to the blacksmithing skill, but a much higher pay-off for our players.

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Welcome to the GUL pit fights. Hosted at Oc'Nivelle (Yew Forest 47o 17`N. x 34o 56`W). Designed to be a place for fighters of all play styles to come together to battle it out, the GUL Pit fights will be held every Saturday. Registration will begin at 8 pm pst, fighting will begin at 9 pm (11 pm central, midnight eastern). Players wishing to register must do so by 8:50. No late entries will be accepted.

This Week's Pit Fight Saturday, January 19th, 2002 will be 1v1 single elimination.

Prizes

• 1st place - 200,000 gold pieces
• 2nd place - 100,000 gold pieces
• 3rd place - 50,000 gold pieces

Guardians of the Undead Lords Pit Fighting rules:

• No magic weapons, no magic armor, no charged magic items.
• Pre-poisoned weapons are not allowed. Fighters with the poisoning skill may poison their blades once the fight has started.
• No casting of field spells, or summoning.
• No pets, this includes spectators. Please stable your pets before arriving at the tower.
• No looting.
• No stealing
• Loss of connection during a fight will result in that fighter losing the match.
• Tournaments are single elimination (the exception being fighters who lose in the semi-finals will be asked to stay and fight for 3rd place)
• All fighters are subject to snooping by the Oc'Nivelle staff.
• Any spectator interference will result in the spectator being banned and the fight starting over.
• No one is permitted inside the fighting arena except the fighters for that match and the ref.
• Fighters may not hide or cast invisible during their fight.
• To reduce lag anyone not fighting will be asked to hide during the fight. Players who consistently do not hide will be removed from the tower.
• No smack talking. The point is to prove what you can do... If you just "owned" someone we all will have seen it, no need to spout off about it.
• When the fights are a 2v2 or 3v3, etc and a member of your team dies, that person may not be resurrected until the match is over. Looting your team members for needed supplies is allowed.
• The ref will have final say over any match. Issues or complaints with the rules of GUL's Pit Fight will not be discussed until after the tournament has ended.

For questions please Icq smerx @ 75997483
Complete fight details can be found HERE

Your humble servant,
Raeven Aurora

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Miners fighting with pulling granite from the mountains instead of the ore they were searching for might want to try knocking their mining down to 99.9%. This will eliminate the chance of mining a piece of granite. However, for those times that granite is desired, slipping on a pair of +1 mining gloves will give the needed skill level.
The reward hammers were discussed a bit. Come to find out the Runic hammers will last for 51 uses (just like a normal exceptional hammer) and the Ancient Smithing hammers will last three times longer (151 uses).
Haans from the Dev Team gave the crowd the raw data for obtaining a Valorite Runic Hammer. According to the numbers, there is a 1 in 18 MILLION chance for a person to receive all Seven (7) deeds required to fill a Large Valorite BOD. Yes, trading will reduce these figures "some".
We also found out that in the very near future a patch will be released that will contain code that will name the Runic hammers by ore type. (Shadow Runic Hammer) That will eliminate the chances of being scammed based on a "shade" of gold/bronze/copper.

The first week of the new scenario, which is currently live on the Pacific shard, is scheduled to be released to the rest of the North American shards, to be active on Wednesday, January 16th, following their regularly scheduled maintenance periods (local server time). Barring any unforeseen issues, the publish will then be released to the European, Asian, and Oceania shards, to be active following their Thursday morning maintenance periods (local server time).

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The LBR final beta CD that was given out at the FanFest has the LBR code on it, but the shard has to also be activated to run it. This means that the new art from UO: LBR isn't going to be visible on production shards yet - even though the art is on the CD, the shards aren't calling for those files, which is why you may see old 2D art in place of the new art for now.

The LBR client will be activated on Test Center 4 in the near future, and we'll make an announcement letting all those with the beta CDs know that they can hop onto Test Center 4 and try out LBR at home!

__________________
Cynthe
Community Manager
ORIGIN Systems

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The figure is in all of the boxes. It's not the same figure that you can buy by itself, it has a special silvery coating on it. A lot of times, special edition figures get that treatment to distinguish them from the ones bought in the stores.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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The first week of the new scenario, which was made live last week on our Test Server, will be made live on the Pacific shard following its Tuesday morning maintenance, local server time.

We will monitor the publish on the Pacific shard, and will announce the schedule for the remaining shards once it has been determined.

Due to issues related to the latest scenario publish, it is necessary to bring the Pacific shard down for an unscheduled maintenance. We expect the shard to be down for approximately one hour. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

…The new map file (blackthorn's castle) wasn't loaded properly. :(

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Hail to ye all,

Our much beloved Sister Elizabeth hath agreed to follow me as the new Leader of The Order of Virtue. She will become the first Abbess of Virtue the Order hath ever seen. It is my hope that ye will help her as ye have always helped and honoured me.

To those who wonder, I can reveal that I am not leaving Britannia (UO), and it will still be possible to reach me in the future. Indeed, I will stay in contact with those who wish to stay in contact with me. However, my time in Rivendell and The Order of Virtue is over. I have many fond memories of times past, and heed them with a gladdened heart. I hope that just as many (and even more) such good memories await Sister Elizabeth, The Order of Virtue, and Rivendell, in the days to come. And so, with these words, I bring the second era of the Order of Virtue to an end, and step back so that the third era may begin.

-Selwyn, former Brother and Abbot of OoV

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Some excerpts from the article:

Two years ago I wrote one of the most difficult stories of my life. I wrote about my daughter, who was dying from a disease known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy. I wanted to raise awareness of the disease, and perhaps raise a few dollars for research while I was at it.

......

It wasn't just my fellow game-players who were there with words of support and donations. There were also the game companies themselves. There wasn't a single company in the online game market that didn't help, in one way or another. Many developers sent in donations to help find a cure. No company, however, did as much as Origin Systems. Origin placed banner ads on their main site to an organization that helped families suffering from the disease. They held an auction and donated the money to FSMA. I will never forget that.

This year, at the Ultima World Faire, they continued this tradition by raising money through an auction, and donated the money to FSMA in my daughter's name.

......

No Comment thread. Instead, visit FSMA and make a donation yourself. You'll feel better for doing so.

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Enjoy a good book? Enjoy a good book discussion even more? We here at the Library of Knowledge love to talk about books! That's why we are excited to announce the second meeting of the Bookwyrms Book Club.

All book lovers are invited to attend! Our second meeting will be at 8:00 Central on Tuesday, January 15, 2001 at the Library of Knowledge at Ix, featuring Classic Tales of Vesper, Volume 1, by Clarke's Printery. Gates will be provided from the Britain Main Library steps at 7:45 Central Britannian Time.

Once again, we'll provide a copy of the featured book, a blank journal for notes, dinner, and a door prize. You bring your thoughts and discussions.

Chino, Librarian
Ix Library of Knowledge
www.calamity.net/ix

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Greetings folks!

Well, it has been one frustrating issue after another with regard to this new server we moved to a couple weeks ago. Here is where we stand. Today or tomorrow, we will be receiving an entirely new server. Not a single component (i.e. SCSI controller, hard drive, etc.). We are getting an entirely new system with 100% of the components being new.

Rather than playing the hardware shuffle any longer, it was decided to simply replace the entire box and leave nothing more to chance. The server will be down during the course of the day today (01/14/02) and possibly tomorrow as well depending on how things go in the data center. We should then be back online and everything should be good to go from that point on.

I feel I must address the rumors that people like to start about Stratics dropping off the map and how we had a good run as if were packing our bags and closing shop. Nothing could be further from the truth. Weve simply had a very difficult situation with new hardware and a much less than responsive host with regard to support and turn-around times. Trust me when I say that wed not be remaining with this host if it were not in our best interest at this time.

This recent bout of hardware issues with our new server does not mean were going away or closing the network. On the contrary, we have a lot of exciting new plans for 2002 and were not going anywhere except forward. So when you see a post on some site stating that were closing our doors... keep in mind that they never came to us to find out the facts of the situation. No one posting such comments have.

I want to once again apologize to everyone for the inconvenience our downtime may have caused you, but we will be fully up to speed again shortly. This server replacement should address everything. By the way, while the main web server is being replaced, please do visit our forums. Maybe people have not even realized that even when the primary web server was down, our other servers have been online and running great. Our forums are available: http://boards.stratics.com. We all understand it may take a couple weeks of being back before some are fully convinced, but thats okay. Well be here. ;)

Regards,

Jhariden
Community Development

Stratics
http://www.stratics.com
The Massively Multiplayer Network

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One of the bits of news out of the FanFest was that the current Honor Virtue System will be reworked. Participants at the FanFest heard that the 10 person-at-a-time tournament has been scrapped. In an e-mail group, Calandryll explained that scrapping the gang-tournament doesn't mean we won't be seeing a one-on-one system:

No, it doesn't preclude a 1 on 1 type of system at all. In fact, I got some great feedback from players on how it "might" be done.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

Then Calandryll added:

We're not throwing out the idea of multiple combatants either. Just that one on one was now a consideration as well.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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UOCraft dot com has officially opened it's doors! UOCraft is a site dedicated to news and information relevant to the UO merchant community, with particular emphasis on skill training and shop/vendor ownership. Whether you fancy fancy shirts, whip up tasty potions, or earn your living with a hammer and anvil, you'll find useful news, articles, and utilities at UOCraft.

UOCraft dot com - Powergaming Merchantry, One Mule at a Time

Kitiara
Webmaster
UOCraft.com

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Miners fighting with pulling granite from the mountains instead of the ore they were searching for might want to try knocking their mining down to 99.9%. This will eliminate the chance of mining a piece of granite. However, for those times that granite is desired, slipping on a pair of +1 mining gloves will give the needed skill level.
The reward hammers were discussed a bit. Come to find out the Runic hammers will last for 51 uses (just like a normal exceptional hammer) and the Ancient Smithing hammers will last three times longer (151 uses).
Haans from the Dev Team gave the crowd the raw data for obtaining a Valorite Runic Hammer. According to the numbers, there is a 1 in 18 MILLION chance for a person to receive all Seven (7) deeds required to fill a Large Valorite BOD. Yes, trading will reduce these figures "some".
We also found out that in the very near future a patch will be released that will contain code that will name the Runic hammers by ore type. (Shadow Runic Hammer) That will eliminate the chances of being scammed based on a "shade" of gold/bronze/copper.

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The council meeting for the City of Yew will be held this Saturday January 12th at 5 CST. We ask that all who wish to attend meet at the Abbey doors [Trammel] and a gate will be provided.

We would like to let all know that Yew is very much active still and will be running events and quests in the near future.

Mastermind, Commander Yew Militia

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Tuesday, January 15th
Sandlewood and Home Tours Present "Winter Rune Drive"

Join us at the Sandlewood Tuesday, January 15th from 730cst that's (830 est) to 930 cst for our Winter Rune Drive!

That's right, bring your favorite Felucca rune with you to add to our library. Could be your favorite player run vendor shop armor, reagents, raw materials, craftables, magic weapons, whatever....) or a rune to your favorite hunting spot or unique location.

We are also celebrating the opening of the Home Tours tower - and they will be on hand giving out door prizes and free tour packs!

Come one, come all... Have some fun, meet with old friends, and make new ones!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!
~~Nols

Runes to the Sandlewood can be found at various player run establishments across the land, but if you can't find one, and need one, give Nol a holler via ICQ @ 26424082.

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===============
===============
uobugs.commailbox
===============
===============
Thank you for submitting a bug report to ORIGIN Systems!
In order for bugs to be found, verified, and addressed, it's important that we have enough information. NOTE: Please keep your bug submissions concise. A page-long explanation of a bug takes time to read, and makes it harder to find the relevant information!

The information we need includes:
-- Your UO account name (do not include your password);
-- Time, date and shard of the occurrence (this is relevant because it will tell us exactly what patch or publish was active at the time);
-- Your computer information if relevant (if it's a graphical glitch or crash, include the video card and other system info);
-- Which game client you were using (2D or 3D);
-- Exactly what steps you took that led up to the bug;
-- What the bug consisted of;
-- Whether or not you tried to repeat the bug, and if you succeeded;
-- If you're reporting an exploit, please note where you learned of the exploit, and if it's a third party program, where that program can be found.

We will try and respond to most bug reports, but we can't respond to all of them. They are being read, however, and we hope this mail will help you understand what happens to your bugs after they're sent. Ever wondered what happens to bug reports that are submitted to the ORIGIN QA department.

If we have enough information, they are entered into our bug database, where they are categorized as being either:
-- A duplicate of a previously submitted bug;
-- A new bug of immediate, high, medium or low priority;
-- Not a bug, or 'as designed'.

Any new bugs are assigned to a developer, who then logs into the database periodically and checks all bugs assigned to them. Obviously those bugs that are rated as immediate priority take precedence, and the other bugs are worked into the publishes as soon as feasible. Some bugs will take longer than others to address, depending on their priority, complexity, balance issues, or compatibility with other systems and updates, but once bugs are entered in our database, you can be sure they won't be lost, or forgotten!

Thanks again for helping to improve Ultima Online by submitting your bugs. If you feel that you may have left out important information, please re-submit your bug to this address and provide us with the additional information so we'll have the greatest chance of repeating and fixing the bug or exploit.

The Quality Assurance Team
Ultima Online

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Hello people of Sonoma.

Now that we are all about recovered from the holiday hangover it is time to begin our new season of the Fight Nights at Oasis. I feel that last season was a huge success. I am targeting Sunday February 10th as the opening night. Everything will be confirmed in the next week or so.

As the new proprietor of the Oasis Dueling Pits, I will be implementing a few changes to this season. I feel that the changes I am making will provide for new strategy and hopefully not as many repeat winners every week.

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE OF THE OASIS FIGHT NIGHTS!! This event is run by people who want to show all people of Sonoma a good time and who like to see good PvP. For this reason, when you are in Oasis for the Fight Night Event...we ask that there is no Noto-Killing, Order/Chaos or Faction fighting. We're here to see good PvP and we aren't concerned with your guild, your color or your faction. We'd like to have an environment where even Red characters can come out and participate in a PvP contest without fear of getting attacked simply because they are red. So please, park all of that at the login screen when you come out for this event. If you do not abide by the rules than the rules cannot protect you.

Participants will be randomly paired by the event coordinators. The tournament is single elimination with the top three performers receiving prizes.

Once in the pit, the judge will give a quick run down of the rules to avoid confusion. He will then ask the player to flag on him, turning them gray. This is for the safety of the competitors, to insure that murder counts will not be given. In addition if a murder count is given out or if anyone attacks an Oasis staff member they will be barred from competing in future events held in the Oasis Pits.

There will be a 7 (seven) minute time limit to all matches other than the final round. This is a change from last year where there was no time limit and after 5 minutes a "no heal" was called. After watching many of the Fight Night events and talking with people who competed in them, it was evident that many people had problems with the "no heal" timer because as you all know while you are fighting you seldom are paying attention to some person standing there saying "NO HEAL". At the end of the seven minutes the judges will compare health-bars and the person who has more life will advance. JUDGES DECISIONS ARE FINAL. If in the event that there is a tie in health left, the participants will restart and duel with absolutely no healing. If during this "rematch" one of the participants heals they will automatically be disqualified and their opponent will advance.

During the match, players may not cast Earthquake, Meteor Swarm, or Chain Lightning. - note - Blade Spirit and Energy Vortex spells may be used however if they target one of the arena judges they will be dispelled.

Participants may not "Buff" themselves up before the match begins through the use of spells, potions, or items.

Fencers and swordsman may use any grade of poison on their blades. Mages may cast the Poison spell without limitation.

No pets may be taken into the pits. This includes all tamable monsters and mounts, even ethereal mounts.

Finaly, we will be allowing the use of Magic Jewelry and Clothing this season to provide for more "thinking" by the combatants. Arcane Clothing will be allowed. However you may not use any magic weapons, magic armor, magic staves or wands, faction weapons, savage spears, orc bows, virtue weapons, or items created by runic hammers or other bulk order rewards.

If you have any questions, would like to make a donation, are interested in assisting with the events, or would like to reserve the pits (when there is no Fight Night scheduled), feel free to contact me through ICQ at 138665709.

Vincent Debrow

When we began to dissect our new player experience and view it as a series of basic steps and experiences, we quickly identified several elements ripe for enhancement. The approach of dropping players into the world and expecting them to know how to (or want to) immediately create their own entertaining experiences within the game world simply did not work for the majority of new players. However, the issue becomes more complex in light of the fact that games such as Ultima Online are geared to provide a multitude of different ways to play the game -- all of which are determined by the player. This is what creates the open-ended style of play and ultimately provides the depth of the game allowing for the long-term lifecycle of these games.

The challenge, then, was to create more of a single-player game driven experience that would be more fun and comfortable to the new player. We opted for a solution that eases the transition between the single-player mindset and the massively-multiplayer mindset by creating a highly directed experience that starts when players first enter the game world. This is accomplished using tangible quests and goals much like you'd find in a single-player RPG and progressively evolves into a more broad and open-ended set of options. This "directed" experience incorporates adventure, early "wins" and rewards along the way and ensures that, above all, those first few sessions are fun and create the desire to continue further into the game!

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It was finally here. Dormax could hardly believe that this day had finally come. The day when Elminster, First Lord of the Rangers, would be brought home; or would he?

A morning of anticipation and afternoon of worry, those were the signs that the old ranger had been awake far to long. Sleepless and pacing, Dormax walked the length of the Rangers Tradespot Bar and Grill, home of Elminster and guildhall of the Rangers. Tis almost time; he said, setting his jaw firm. Dormax, ya old foolhe spoke to himself, Still thy worrying tis a babes thing to fret over something beyond thy control.

The pigeons had flown out almost an hour ago to every corner of the globe. He had no idea at hat time that the party of Elminster’s rescuers was already preparing for there place in history. Dormax went to the city of paladins, Trinsic. Once there his wife, Black Cat, and Tybalt joined him. The three rangers looked each other over to assure that every sword was sharpened, every bootstrap tight. They were going to need every advantage they could muster.

Cat went to the Counselors Hall, where Dormax was to greet the called adventurers. When the time came, finally, Dormax and his growing party at the bank, for others had arrived there as well, walked to the meeting place. A large group was quickly gathering.

“What’s this?” Dormax asked of himself. “One, two, three… five… eight… and more coming presently??” His astonishment was overwhelming. Never before had such a crowd gathered. For they were poised, without concern for their own lives, to risk all in the endeavor of saving Elminster from his kidnappers!

Dormax, after hailing those assembled, mounted the stairs of the great Counselors Hall. From that perch, Dormax related the tale of what had happened so far. There was not much information to go on. Elminster was looking for a supply of fertile dirt. The kidnappers were “not entirely human.” And, they were lead by a brutish creature that forced them to toil in the earth endlessly. Those were the known facts. But was it enough?

There was an aging mage and scholar whom Dormax had visited from time to time. His name was Thoran Yo. “Thoran is a man of many talents and also a scholar of great knowledge,” he said to the host. “He’s a bit barmy at times, and not altogether there, but he’s the one, if anyone, who can help us determine the location of the kidnappers.” The old mage told everyone that he had a magical rune that could take them all to Thoran’s home in eastern Britannia. Sadly though, he didn’t know what to do with it, for Dormax was now a mage and knew nothing of the magical arts. A man in black who called himself Bane offered to create a magical gate through which the company could travel across the land in the blink of an eye. Bane needed only the rune.

After some time, Dormax was able to locate the rune, which had become buried deep within his backpack of supplies. When everyone acknowledged that they were ready, Bane cast a spell, and a glowing blue gateway was opened. The party rushed through the portal. Dormax, Cat, and Guenevere were left behind by mistake as they could not get through the doorway in time. And, much to their chagrin, Bane had left them without rune or magic. They were forced to ponder their situation and eventually Bane returned to once again open up the gateway to the old wizard’s home.

Thoran was found in his log cabin home in the eastern lands of Britannia. It seems that he was working diligently when the party interrupted his golem training by bursting through his front door. Not a little surprised, Thoran and Dormax greeted each other and Dormax related the tale in brief to his wizardly friend. “Fertile dirt? Brutish did you say?” Thoran thought long about the latter.

From the crowd, one of those present shouted, “Orcish Brute!!” and suddenly there was a gasp as each in turn called up stories or experience with those devilish creatures.

“Hmm,” Thoran replied, “I know of a place like that. I shall gate you there, but I can only get you so close and you will have to walk the rest of the way.” Whispers, shouts and introspective thought filled the room with talk of orc brutes. Dormax remained ignorant of those creatures true power at first, for they were only stories to him. The others present were quick to inform him of the beast’s capability.

Thoran, himself, was unable to come with the party; his bad back preventing him from doing much adventuring better suited to the younger folk. Thoran supplied the host with several scrolls of resurrection and several that he said could be used to summon demons from the very Pit if needed. The group talked a bit more about the “brute.” They formulated their plans and tried to ensure every one of what to expect from such a monster. It was even said by one fellow, “I’ve seen them take on dragons and win!!” That sent another shiver through the crowd.

When all was said and done, Thoran opened a gate portal to an area of the world known now as Orc Valley. In the old days that Dormax remembered, it was called Rat Valley because the ratmen had claimed it as their own. In recent times, the orcs tribes had taken over the valley’s southern end… where the party had to go.

Demons were summoned upon the group’s arrival and the battles began. The orc’s of the valley were taken by surprise as a dozen men and women, armed to the teeth, descended upon them. In short order, the orcs were pushed back and the party made there way to the gaping black entrance of the Orc Cave.

The party entered. There was little room to move about in the cave and the demons went to do their work of utterly destroying any initial resistance that the orcs of the cavern were able to put up. Before the spell binding them to our world faded, the demons had vanquished many of the orcs with the party defeating the rest so that everyone could continue onto the second floor of the dungeon.

The second level was filled with dangers. Orcish magi threw spells at them while orcish bombers threw exploding vials. If that was not enough, orc lords and captains jumped in with swords and maces. Under conditions like these, it was a wonder that there were no more casualties then there were. Only one of the rescuers fell in the end. He was resurrected and the congregated group continued.

Unknown to Dormax, however, a few of the rescuers had already gotten away and were scouting ahead of the mass. As the party neared the entrance to the third floor of the cavern, through a dark mining tunnel, one of the scouts returned. “We found the Brute!” was the shout and it rang through the air of the cavern like a crystal bell in a cathedral. Everyone knew what lie ahead. Dormax, worried about the safety of the group’s members stayed toward the rear to ensure that no one was left behind. By the time he got there the brute was engaged by most (if not all) of the party.

Swords, spells, bardic music, arrows, teeth and claws!! It was quite a display and the brute took it like an orc! It was some battle as the brute summoned other orcs to his aid. It seemed that his supply of them would never run out. But, perseverance in all things, the party at long last won out in the end and there was great rejoicing when the monster finally fell!

The group spread out in the new cavern before them. It was huge by standards of the rest of the cave. Two main branches were found off the cavern. One contained earth elementals. The other contained Elminster!!!

Elminster, cold and weak and half dead, was found collapsed in the far end of the cavern. It was there that the orcs had kept him these long weeks, and it was only hope that was keeping him alive. And, because the orcs had delighted in torturing him, he was naked. He was immediately offered a horse to assist him and a pair of pants until he could find something warmer. There was pride and elation as word spread and the party gathered around him.

Suddenly… Another orc brute appeared with a host of other orcs, bombers and captains. Without fear, the rescuers tried to divert attention away from Elminster, but one of the bombers caught site of him and must have figured out why these humans were intruding on their territory. It attacked Elminster with flaming oil! Dormax quickly tossed a magical rune for the Rangers’ guildhall to Elminster. There was a sparkle of magic and Elminster was gone, gated along with half of the host, out of the dungeon. The other half was just finishing up the last of the orcs when the portal closed. So that made twice that Dormax had been left behind. But Elminster was safely away and onward to freedom.

The remaining group, half the original number, gated to the Rangers Tradespot Bar and Grill. They were contemplating where Elminster might have been taken to, for neither he nor his protectors were top be found, when suddenly another gate opened before them. From its glowing light Elminster and the others came.

“Hooza!” was heard… and many a “Woohoo!” Once back to safety and greetings and thank-yous out of the way, Elminster related his story.

He had been mining the fertile dirt within the cavern for a magical experiment, though he did not say anything more specific on that. It would seem that the orcs were none to keen on the idea, for they followed him back to the Tradespot. Using a trick of poison, they drugged Elminster and bound him. They forced an unfortunate wandering healer who happened by to write a note of ransom because none of the orcs could write in common. The vile orcs killed the peaceful healer and took Elminster back to their cave in south Yew. He told everyone that the Brute even threatened and planned on eating him, but the captors told it of the ransom idea. It was then that Dormax discovered that Elminster spoke a bit of orcish. The brute, crafty in the ways of war and evil had come up with a plan; collect the ransom, and then eat the victim. A plan that failed utterly!

The rescuers were provided food and ale and all celebrated to their hearts content within the Tradespot’s warm interior. All were pleased!! For they had completed a grand adventure; but the question remains; will the orcs take revenge? And, many present promised their swords in times of need to Dormax, Elminster, and The Rangers of the Forest League!

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This is the event as posted on UO's calender and on the Valor Knight Message Board.

VK Message Board

www.valorknights.com is the Valor Knights' website.

The Post:

The Basic Idea: two-person teams tackle a blood elemental, the fastest kill without either team member dying wins. The Prizes and Categories of Competition: Overall (all participants and their pets eligible), 1 million gps EACH TEAM MEMBER for first; 500,000 gps EACH TEAM MEMBER for second: 250,000 gps EACH TEAM MEMBER for third.

No Pets (open to all who do not use pets): 750,000 gps EACH TEAM MEMBER for first; 300,000 gps EACH TEAM MEMBER for second; 100,000 EACH TEAM MEMBER for third place.

All Mage (self-explanatory, except that the team does not qualify for an All Mage prize if either member provokes or brings a pet): Same Prizes as No Pets category.

All Warrior (BOTH members rely primarily on melee skills; no pets or provokers qualify for prizes): Same Prizes as No Pets category

The Time: The competion will have two sections. Section I will be Wednesday, 1/23/02, starting at 9 PM EST. Section II will be Saturday, 1/26/02, starting at 10 PM EST. There is no advantage to competing in one section rather than the other. Compete whichever date is more convenient for you.

The Place: We meet at Valor Castle. The castle is located just east across the bay from Vesper, at 72 25 North 130 4 East, in Tram. The actual competition will occur in Shame, Tram, 5th level.

Registration: There is no entry fee, but all entries must be posted at least 24 hours in advance of the start for that section. Each entry must list the names of both team members, whether pets or provocation will be used, and whether the team claims to qualify as an all-warrior team. Entries should be posted here or by ICQ to me, at 121621540.

The "Fine Print":

1) So as to offset any lag in communication, the clock begins to run only when the blood assigned as the target loses its first hit point, not when the team is assigned its target.

2) Conditions will NOT be controlled. Expect the area to be populated with scorpions, earth els, and copper els, all of whom may make your task tougher. If you get more interference than the next team, that is your tough luck.

3) While watching others compete, people are expected to neither help nor hinder, and should hide or invis to the extent that is possible. Luring, moving so as to cause spawn to retarget, and warding spawn away, with intent to help or hinder another team, are forbidden. People who violate this rule and attempt to help or hinder others risk disqualification.

4) Characters may enter only once. In other words, if Merlin competes with Arthur, Merlin cannot also team with Lancelot. However, people with multiple characters may enter all three, or five, or all ten, or whatever.

5) Each team may win only one prize. A team that qualifies for two prizes will win the greater prize only. So, if, for example, an all-warrior team finishes first overall, it would win the overall prize but not the lower prize for being the top all-warrior team. In that event, the 2nd place all-warrior team would take the top warrior prize, 3rd would take second, and so on.

6) We reserve the right to close registration if and when the number of entries becomes overwhelming. So, get your entry in early.

Sponsorship: The tournament, which is based on teamwork in defeating pure evil, is sponsored by the Valor Knights.

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From the Chronicles of Elder Raticker:

Moving with the swiftness of wind, Raticker summoned the five members of the Circle together to find more vessels for the alien entities. The cavernous abode they continued to meet in was littered with human remaines, sulphurous ash, and candles. After the last of them had been brought together, Raticker addressed his small following: "Friends, we are now pressured to complete our mission. The Ancient One strains to enter this world and we are compelled to ensure his safe journey. In this, we now are going to take two more into our ranks. We first, travel to Serpent's Hold and then off to Jhelom as I believe there will be a gathering of warriors there. Any questions? Good. Let us be off." with that Raticker opened a gate to the seafaring city of Serpent's Hold.

Darma hobbled into the gate, her punishment for exploits in Moonglow had earned her a severe beating, and three hours on the rack. The Hold was quiet and the chilled sea air refreshed the five travelers as they began slaughtering at will. Bringing down the Azure Fire, sheet of purple hued enery rained upon the unprotected island. Guards screamed for assistance to no avial, the stables crumbled under the pressures of the intense energy being expended. The five creatures moved south from the main bank seeking another vessel for their evil plot and leaving a path of destruction behind them.

Hearing of this news, White Lotus put together a small band of Highland Guard and moved against the onslaught. Seeing the creatures were bringing down such harsh destruction, she new they would not be protected by their globes of protection. Taking heavy casualties, her small squad was not able to deflect any of the aggresors. "Pull back!" she ordered and the still living were able to move deeper into the hold for protection.

"There!" cried Raticker. Grabbing his amulet it blazed green and a sinuous stream of light emerged to encircle Drake of the Highland Guard. Stunned, Drake turned to face his new master and dropped to his knees. "What are your wishes, master."

White Lotus stood shocked as she saw one of her brave friends being consumed by the light and taken as the alien vessel. But as she stared in disbelief, she saw Farbanti being healed by Bloxxas. They had taken damage! Straining to listen to their foriegn words, she finally heard that which the mages at Moonglow Academy needed. For Bloxxas had spoken a name, and that name was 'Anaganti'.

"Farbanti, you fool. You are no good to us now, take brother Drake back to the caverns and bring him up to date on our plans." Raticker gave his instructions while opening another gate to the island of Jhelom. "Yes, master."

The farming and training island of Jhelom was peaceful and breezy this time of year. The gate opened below the training grounds just outside the city limits. The Sister's of Enchantment were training in tactical offenses and magical arts, when the four arrived. Not knowing what to do they scattered with the other farm animals. This attack was made simple. The Shimmering Globe surrounded the Circle protecting them from all forms of attack. Grabbing his amulet, Raticker turned on Leshyani and brought her to her knees. "You are mine wench." smirked Raticker. "You will serve us well, I hope you like the color green."

Pandamonium erupted as the guild tried to form a line of assalt. The mages were unable to penetrate the shield and the archers could not get any of their arrows through. Turning to view the small group of attackers, Raticker saw in the background White Lotus approaching. This time she held a small globe and was beginning to pronounce a name. Shocked beyond comprehension, the now five creatures opened a gate to make their escape. The last syllable heard from the lips of White Lotus was "..ganti".

"How is this possible!" roared Raticker has they entered the hallowed grounds which they occupied. Moving like a trapped animals, the seven creatures formed up the pentagram to summon the essence of the Ancient One for advise......

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I don't know if this will help. If I know where a vendor is "supposed" to be when s/he sells something, but I know that s/he lettered in Track and Field, I position myself near that location, even if the vendor is a good distance away. Then I type in "vendor buy" without hitting the enter key. I single-click the vendor to bring up the context menu and select the "buy" option. When the vendor snaps into place next to me, I hit the enter key. Voila! Simple, one-stop shopping. :)

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Ok since OSI will not spend the time and use the money we give them to organize a single event on sonoma, I figured I would!

The first contest I will hold will be a PURE MAGERY contest. There will be no melee and no ranged weapons. The only thing allowed in this contest is MAGERY. Sorry, that means no bandaids either!

Many of you will object to this because you have designed your character to be more powerfull with the use of other non-magery skills. I will hold more contests and you will get your chances. First I am going to start with pure magery!

THINGS TO KNOW FIRST: THE REWARD ROCKS Winner gets to choose 1 million gold or an etherial mount! This contest is 100% safe The way I have it set up you will not get ganked and looted. The contest will happen on the roof of my tower.

And from Puck's Message Board I leanred about the sign-up rules...

I needed a way to limit the entries On thursday the 17th I will place 40 Boxes on a vendor in front of my tower Located south of trinsic at 131o 39s By 41o 29'e.

See the map at Pucksworld for better insturctions of how to find it.

These Boxes will have a book in them with a confermation code and an email address to send in your signups.

DO NOT TELL ANYONE YOUR CODE! Duplicate codes will eliminate all parties will that code. Its your task to make sure nobody gets your code.

PRICE: ok there will be a price. 5k Big deal im sure you can afford this. If you can't I fear you magery skills are not good enough to enter :-)

5k for a chance to win 1 mil or and eth horse!

Anyone with a good mage and a need of an ethereal horse, here's your chance...

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http://superguild.homestead.com/FederationColonization.html

Space.

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ME BEEN AWAY FOR WHILE BUT ME NOW TRY TO UPDATE BY EVERY MONDAY!

ME HAVE NOOBIEDOOD ADVENTURE ON NEW YEARS AND ME MAKE NEW YEARS RESOLUTION! WHEEEEEEE!

WEBSITE FOUND HERE:
http://normalguy.keenspace.com/noobiedood.html

THANKS MR HUMOR GUY!
NOOBIEDOOD

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As I was winding down for a calm evening, I heard a report from a Knight remarking about a strange cross made of body parts and blood lain across the roof of the Trinsic Bank..

Pressing further, I immediately hit a set of runes and arrived upon a grisly scene.. much like the reports of the Highland Guard desecration.. I was left wondering who would seek to lay these.. why a cross.. and why in the City of Honor, now?

I sighed and began cleaning it up alone.. more questions than answers rolling through my mind..

~Aryn

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And you had to listen very carefully to your players. In those days, the average access fee was over $5.00 an hour; if you willy-nilly nerfed something in the game, the players let you know by first screaming loudly and then voting with their feet. We’d huddle together at GEnie’s Sysop conferences, exchange information on what worked and didn’t, tell war stories, and joke and laugh. We laughed a lot in those days. And innovated. And had fun, because dammit, it’s the game industry and games are supposed to be fun.

[...]

When Ultima Online demonstrated in 1997 that an online persistent world could charge a flat rate and still make gobs of money, the other major publishers finally took serious notice of the genre. One element they realized was missing from MMOGs were professional budgets and professional development teams. The solo game business taught them that eye candy was a key ingredient and that was something almost all persistent world games lacked pre-1997. "Well, heck," they said to themselves, "we know how to fix that!" And out trundled the wheelbarrows of cash to pay for artists and programmers and designers… except the designers, almost all of which had never designed a for-pay game before. This is like Ford hiring a guy who once built a really good Soap Box Racer to design the next model Mustang.

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"May The Great Pumpkin bless this auction and all in attendance!"

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Hi Britannians,

here we are again preparing for a thrilling Dungeontour on DF. This time we go to Hythloth on Fire Isle. This tour is designed to bring fun for all attendants and help those who cannot venture there alone thus seeking the safety of a larger group.

The meeting place is on Sunday 13.Jan. at 22:00 MET (21:00 GMT) in the front of MoT #3 (DF/ Trammel/Trinsic first house on the left site) . We gate approx. 15 minutes later from there directly to the action and bring you also back if required. The tour is open for everybody and we will also have player with ressurect possibilities joining us. All that's needed is to come and have fun.

Kasim
Senator Merchants on Tour
[email protected]

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Haplo: Can I ask a few questions?
Maximus Meridius: Sure

Haplo: OK... when was Thrid Legion formed?
Maximus Meridius: Hmm two months ago approximately

Haplo: When can we expect to see them up and running, functionally?
Maximus Meridius: Well, I expect in 2-3 months you will see legionnaires in both fel and tram. Most of the first recruits are currently learning how we operate and many of those will probably be promoted to lead their own men.

Haplo: What is your stance on the army of Golgotha?
Maximus Meridius: Currently, no stance. Our guild house is south of Golgotha, but they have not threatened us, so as yet, no need to address them.
Haplo: Ah have to keep on the good side of neighbours like that.
Haplo: *Smiles*
Maximus Meridius: Nay, simply that there are others carrying the fight for now. Our time may come when we may have to side with good agains evil.

Haplo: Can we expect to see you upholding the Virtues?
Maximus Meridius: We try... we're a neutral good guild; we don't go after anyone who's red nor do we consider all blues good. Those who attack us we respond to.
Haplo: If there's a cause we shall see you on the side of good though....
Maximus Meridius: Aye, we both have to live in this land. If evil wins we shall all be driven from the lands of Felucca and maybe Trammel too.

Haplo: How large do you expect the Legion to grow to?
Maximus Meridius: Well, we're looking at possibly between 40-50 real members in the end, of course our organization takes into acct that we may be larger or smaller. We're a military unit, we live by a military hierarchy. We promote leaders for their leadership experience more than skills. Eventually an order will be given and those below will pass them on, and if our training goes well then even the lowest soldier will know his duty and know what to do without being watched over.
Haplo: A well oiled machine in theory.
Maximus Meridius: Aye... starts with the first recruits... If I do a good job with them, they will train others like I trained them. We train our guys differently for PvP as opposed to PvM. In PvM we will use formations, simple ones, to deal with monsters. Against people, we utilize a different tactic....
Maximus Meridius: *Smiles*

Haplo: Ok well thanks for your time.
Maximus Meridius: It is no bother.
Haplo: I look forward to seeing the Third Legion in action...
Maximus Meridius: I hope that eventually someday when we sit down again we will have something more to share like many of the great guilds in Sonoma
Haplo: *Nods*
Maximus Meridius: Good day
Haplo: Strength and Honor!
Haplo: Farewell.

For those of you wanting to know more about the Third Legion and what they're up to, you can visit their website.

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Friday Night is Fight Night !

Every Friday night 9pm EST

Sign ups start at 8:30 EST each friday, or at the "pre-registration" time of 8:00 pm EST to 9:00 EST on Thursday night.

-:-: Entry Fee: 10k per character :-:-

Paying 2 Spots 50% of total pot with a 100k minimum ,and 20k to runner up.
RULES....
- GM weapons,armor,and sheilds only;
- NO DP's unless player has skill,which must be proven at time of entry;
- NO Tribal Spears, NO Pets and NO Pre Cast;
**Potions ARE alowed**
- Magic Reflect, Reactive armor and protection will be alowed when each match starts (once again NO precast, and best of all NO Looting!)
There will be NO Casting outside Ring during any fights--the offeending partie(s) will be removed from Tower and turney. Any aggressor outside the ring will also be removed.
Please stable all mounts (there will be no pets alowed in house). Please keep chatter to a minuium to minimize lag. If any interferance from outside the ring occurs, there will be a reduel. We would like to welcome ALL players to this turnament including Reds, Faction Members, Mages and warriors.

Runes for our Fel tower can be picked up in Trammel at Sextant cords 74o 58'N, 43o56'W Trammel on a vendor named Gideon, or you can go to the tower its sextant cords are 101o 36'N, 21o 47'W Felucca. Gates to the Tower and free runes will be available at the Yew Moongate in felucca. Once again, we'd like to welcome you all to the Best PvP turnament on Great Lakes!

~ Doom

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Come forth yon minions of evil, and let us celebrate the union of Lord Krelin An-Cor and Lady Tabatha.

Ceremonies and reception will be held at the Nujelom Palace (Trammel), Janurary 6th at 4pm mountain time. Break out ye best bone trappings and join us for the festivities!

Lady Black Ice of Ravenshire

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The explosion shook the fortress and hurled Dasha to the floor. The Jukan warriors around her toppled in a clatter of armor and spears. She regained her bearings and glanced about the room. The stone walls had cracked. The floor shifted. The fortress verged on collapse.

Master Adranath’s ritual had begun. The demise of the Juka and Meer was at hand, unless Dasha and Kabur acted quickly.

She rose to her knees and barked, “Exodus! Do something to give us time, sorcerer!” From her fingertips leapt a spell that illuminated the shadowy alcove, but the Juka’s mysterious lord was not there. He had left behind a curious altar or pedestal, studded with flickering gemstones and inset with silver, geometric patterns. She muttered, “Where is your revered master, Kabur, in the face of danger?”

The warlord growled, “The Juka do not hide behind wizards. We fight with our own hands!” Then he charged through a doorway. Dasha followed him. They emerged atop the high wall at the front of the massive fortress. From this vantage they saw the Jukan city spread around them, devastated by the earthquakes of the morning’s battle. Chaotic melee poured blood through the streets.

As Dasha strained to maintain her composure her keen eyes darted across the landscape, searching. Adranath, no! Her hunters vision found the elder far below working his hands deftly at the northern point of a circle of other eternals. A hellish glow began to shine forth from the ring of mages and Dasha knew at any moment the fortress would be hit by another blast of vengeful power. Her senses suddenly dulled as if she had been submerged in icy water. The valley before her seemed to freeze and the silence of a still night engulfed the chaos. Adranath far below looked as if he were captured in a blurry painting. A small plume of fire in the infant stages of a chaotic inferno hung from his fingertips like an orniment. Only Kabur and the structure on which he stood appeared clearly in her sight. Her body moved as if covered in lead and simply moving her head from side to side took extra concentration. Streams of dull violet light started to slowly trace along the surface of the floor below her like tears in parchment. They increased in number tracing over every surface faster and faster covering the entire fortress in the violet glow. The streams gathered below Dasha and Kabur covering the both of them until nothing could be seen but the strange energy. The Meer woman lost conciousness, her vision bathed in blinding light.

* * *

At the peak of the circle of elders, Adranath ceased his enchanting and froze in horror. As the wave of violent fire disspelled and faded he could see the Juka fortress fade completely from sight. No rubble remained, no ash, no trace of life. The fortress was simply gone.

Exodus and the Juka had escaped. Adranath fell to his knees, tears streaming down his wrinkled face.

Amidst the smoke and fire, the battle between the few remaining Juka warriors and Meer stopped for a moment as a deafening cry of agony echoed across the valley.

* * *

Ancestors, do not forsake us! We do not deserve this end!

By the Great Mother, you have killed us all!

... fire...

... smoke so thick...

Is this how the Juka face eternity?

Is this how the Meer face eternity?

The Juka carved their place in history.

Wisdom accepts the inevitability of change.

* * *

Through utter blackness a crease of light sliced through Dashas vision, stirring her mind. Her limbs felt weak as if she had run for days and her head pounded. A strange wind blew around her, smells her sharp senses had never before known were strong in the air. She managed to pull her eyes open slowly, whincing at the sunlight from above. As her vision focused she could see that she was still in the same fortress, yet something was different about this place.

As Dasha turned slowly she could see a figure standing near her in a dark cloak, floating slightly above the ground. Before she could react a huge clawed limb came forth from underneath the folds of the figures cloak and opened unleashing a hellish blast of fire. She was sent flying backwards over the edge of the fortress wall and fell.

Kabur began to groan and come to a standing position. The grizzled warrior already reaching for his weapon when he came to a kneeling position. "You will not find me so easy to defeat..." he strained to remain upright for a moment. "Rest, Kabur. You have been saved." A voice droned in his head.

"Lord Exodus?" Kabur stood shakily and looked around at the valley below him. It was as if the entire fortress had been moved to another world. Nothing but the structure itself looked familiar.

"Where... where is this place?" He asked turning to examine the cloaked figure again.

"You stand in the fortress you have always known, Kabur. This is Ilshenar." The voice of Exodus buzzed in Kabur's mind.

"This is not the land I remember... I saw fire... death... Only Dasha and I remained. I saw these things like a dream... but not a dream." Kabur could only stare out at the new landscape before him.

"You saw a fate undone, Kabur. You felt time unwinding around you. Your fate begins anew, here, in my service again."

"You... you brought the Juka back from death?" Kabur sheathed his weapon.

"I have undone your death. I spent many centuries gathering the magical power to bring you forth from the past, Kabur. With the assistance of Lord Blackthorn I was able to gain the last amount of strength I needed to spare you from the insanity of the Meer. You now look down upon a new Ilshenar. One with new enemies for the Juka to challenge. I will guide you as I always have."

"Lord Blackthorn?" Kabur stared at the stranger. The cloaked figure pulled back his hood revealing a face part flesh and part armor. An eye like a glowing jewel glimmered slightly, highlighting the groutesque features marred by metal. His face held no expression.

"You will begin by exploring the land surrounding the fortress." Blackthorn ordered. "Gather your weapons and kill anything that you encounter."

Kabur stood still, curious who this being was that suddenly gave him commands. The voice of his master echoed again in his head. "Obey him, Kabur."

Slowly he pulled his stare away from Blackthorn's and walked into the depths of the tower. He could feel the strange one's eyes on him as he left. He did not look back to see the sneer on Blackthorns face. One by one he gathered his men and began distributing weapons and organizing parties to examine the fortress and the lands around it. He stood thinking over a table of weapons. From the top of the tower he had seen life in the distance. What he thought might be humans seemed to be lurking near the marsh areas and in the other direction he was sure he has spotted a gargoyle. He lifted two bows he often used for hunting such game and a hefty supply of arrows.

He walked out of the doors of the fortress with a group of his warriors. They stood for a moment gazing over the landscape, trying to take in this new world. Kabur turned to them and barked "Forward! Weapons at the ready!"

As he strode at the head of the party of warriors he stared ahead ready to strike. One thought was on his mind.

Dasha survived.

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Guardian City Second Sunday Trade Day Attention all fellow Britannians! The Guardians of Light would like to welcome you all to our first monthly Second Sunday Trade Day! This SHARDWIDE event will be come and go!

• Date: Sunday, January 13th
• Time: 4pm to 7pm est
• Place: Guardian City

Guardian City is located on the first penninsula Southeast of Britain. At coordinates: 13 degrees, 11 min. N 46 degrees, 45 min. E The trade day will be on the Roof of the Town Hall (North tower) Craftpersons will make any item: Armor, leather goods, house add-ons, tinker items, bows and wood items FOR FREE WHILE YOU WAIT! Bring your raw materials or buy them at npc prices from our vendors. Every crafts person imaginable will be available to make anything you wish. This can also be an opportunity for trading BOD's, Christmas deed items, magic armor and weapons, items recieved as BoD rewards, rares, and semi-rares. Bring your goods for trade or sale and trade with those who attend. We would be honored by thy attendance! The Guardians of Light ICQ contact 15418443

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The Mighty Dragons of Wisdom [MDW] traveled the lands caroling and delivering holiday gifts the residents of Catskills. The 'elves' of [MDW] put down their swords for the eve and picked up their song books in hopes to deliver tidings of peace and joy. On behalf of [MDW], We extend our Holiday Wishes to one and all.

Happy Holidays

Bragi [MDW]

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People of Brttania,

The Knights of Yew respectfully ask your aid in a matter of great import to all folk of good will that inhabit the lands. A great evil has reappeared in our land that we had hoped was gone for good. Giddeon Night, a man capable of taking over the bodies of his victims, has recently been involved in the kidnapping of a Knight, for the purpose of extorting a certain relic that is in our possesion. His plan was foiled through the valiant actions of certain of our number, but unfortunately, Night himself was able to escape. We seek for this man, who is responsible for the death of Dove the Healer, who many of you may know, as well as that of her friend and companion Jhubal. He may be travelling under the name Gabriel Thorne, or he may, in his arrogance, be using his real name. This man is extremely dangerous, and if he is seen, we would greatly appreciate it if word could be sent to the Knights of Yew at our home in the Aegis clearing, due east of the Yew Abbey, and south of the Yew Moongate. Our thanks in advance go out to any who may aid us in this search. Night was last seen in Buccaneers Den.

In Service to the Virtues,

Lowgun

Grand-Knight

Knights of Yew

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People of Brttania,

The Knights of Yew respectfully ask your aid in a matter of great import to all folk of good will that inhabit the lands. A great evil has reappeared in our land that we had hoped was gone for good. Giddeon Night, a man capable of taking over the bodies of his victims, has recently been involved in the kidnapping of a Knight, for the purpose of extorting a certain relic that is in our possesion. His plan was foiled through the valiant actions of certain of our number, but unfortunately, Night himself was able to escape. We seek for this man, who is responsible for the death of Dove the Healer, who many of you may know, as well as that of her friend and companion Jhubal. He may be travelling under the name Gabriel Thorne, or he may, in his arrogance, be using his real name. This man is extremely dangerous, and if he is seen, we would greatly appreciate it if word could be sent to the Knights of Yew at our home in the Aegis clearing, due east of the Yew Abbey, and south of the Yew Moongate. Our thanks in advance go out to any who may aid us in this search. Night was last seen in Buccaneers Den.

In Service to the Virtues,

Lowgun

Grand-Knight

Knights of Yew

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There is a minimum level of fame that you must be at in order to sacrifice. It's basically the level at which you would be admirable if your fame and karma were equal. Anything less than that is not enough. You are correct though that the more fame you sacrifice the more sacrifice "points" you get.

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Guardian City Second Sunday Trade Day

Attention all fellow Britannians!

The Guardians of Light would like to welcome you all to our first monthly Second Sunday Trade Day!

This SHARDWIDE event will be come and go!

• Date: Sunday, January 13th
• Time: 4pm to 7pm est
• Place: Guardian City

Guardian City is located on the first penninsula Southeast of Britain. At coordinates: 13 degrees, 11 min. N 46 degrees, 45 min. E

The trade day will be on the Roof of the Town Hall (North tower)

Craftpersons will make any item: Armor, leather goods, house add-ons, tinker items, bows and wood items FOR FREE WHILE YOU WAIT!

Bring your raw materials or buy them at npc prices from our vendors. Every crafts person imaginable will be available to make anything you wish.

This can also be an opportunity for trading BOD's, Christmas deed items, magic armor and weapons, items recieved as BoD rewards, rares, and semi-rares. Bring your goods for trade or sale and trade with those who attend.

We would be honored by thy attendance!

The Guardians of Light

ICQ contact 15418443

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Due to an issue that resulted in the Siege Perilous shard running its old ruleset (including statloss) for a few hours, we have deemed it necessary to revert the shard to the last available backup made right before it went down for maintenance this morning.

It is always a difficult decision to make when confronted with the possibility of reverting a shard; however, we feel the damage that could be avoided by reverting the shard far outweighs the inconvenience involved with taking this course of action. We understand the importance of the Siege ruleset to its players, and fully support their playstyle. We apologize for the necessity of this interruption and any inconvenience it may cause.

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The Mighty Dragons of Wisdom [MDW] traveled the lands caroling and delivering holiday gifts the residents of Catskills. The 'elves' of [MDW] put down their swords for the eve and picked up their song books in hopes to deliver tidings of peace and joy. On behalf of [MDW], We extend our Holiday Wishes to one and all.

Happy Holidays!

Bragi [MDW]

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This is most definitely being taken care of! It might actually be out already - I'm not sure, since I've been buried neck-deep in FanFest preparations for the last two days, but if it's not fixed yet, it will be soon. :)

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Old is the Yew tree which has stood the winds of time and seen the brutality of war and the rejoicing of peace. Lovers took shelter below the giant leaves and men conspired against men for riches and power. If the tree could speak what would it say? Would it weep in sadness or with tears of joy for its witness of years?

Now the tree witnesses a new dawning, a new hope or a new chaos. The Moongate of Yew lit the night sky and cast shadows which slowly melted into the darkness of the surrounding brush. Clouds floated across the moons of Sosaria as they faceted in soft hues and a few stars glinted pin-pricks of light through the clouds.

Shimmering in waves of blue the moongate sparked to life as a form entered the circle of rocks. The tree's leaves floated on the breeze of whispers--danger, hope, chaos, peace, hate, love, death, life. The figure took in the surroundings. A watchful eye focused on the darkness, looking for movement, ready to destroy a wayward glance. Leaves of the ancient tree squinted in the darkness to see the features of the figure, but always the figures dark cloak caught the breeze to hide its face.

Silent night, virtuous night, the tree watched the figure step away from the gate and cast a waiting glance back to the moongate. The figure sat on a stone expectantly with nervousness abating--all was calm, and the figure's shoulders dropped to a more content position.

Another form soon appeared in the moongate. There were no floating whispers as this figure approached. But the night-lights dimmed and the clouds pulled together to choke out the might of the moons. The tree felt its roots dig deep into the earth, dragging the giant trunk downward and the leaves pulled themselves in toward the branches of the tree to escape. Evilness flung itself toward all life and the inanimate stones and boulders attempted to burrow into the dirt-to hide, to flee, or to die. Inanimate and animate reacted to this figure in the same way and feeling--of terribleness too terrible for words, too emotional for emotions, too insanity driven for thought. Only one word could be granted to the feeling, emotion and thought for those which experienced this moment....Armageddon. The Old Tree, faithful in standing guard through the centuries, watched as leaves fell.

The Fallen Ones had come to Trammel.

"Make way the Council of Darkness, the Oblivion of mankind. Darkness encounters light and darkness shall choke it. Make way the advent of Chaos, the Oblivion of Virtue. Chaos encounters righteousness and Chaos shall turn it into wickedness. Make way the Rule of Oblivion, the Oblivion of all that is. Oblivion is destiny and Oblivion cannot be stopped. Make way the coming princes of vengeance, the vengeance for years of captivity. Vengeance shall terminate those who stand in its way, or bring wealth and power to those that worship it". --The Tome of Breaking

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She sat before me, her tiny frame shuddering with a mixture of elation and great fear. An odd combination I thought to myself. But there she was, deep green eyes flashing with pride, her usual tanned skin pale. Her golden armor polished brightly, the kilt of deep green fastened tightly about her waist with a small emerald pin. Her locks of dark shadowy gray. I waited patiently for her to speak, watching her silently. Her hand was firmly around her pack, fingers grasping with such a grip that her knuckles were fairly white.

"Rose," she began, her voice trembling. "I have done a wonderful and awful thing!"

I looked at her a moment longer, trying to discern if such a sweet and innocent soul could possibly do anything wrong at all. That fact in mind, I determined that this must not be of such a horrid nature as she led on.

"Anna, dear...It can not possibly be that bad!" I said cheerfully, attempting to lighten her mood.

She looked down then, the little color that was left in her face drained completely. She looked up her eyes graven, she swallowed thickly and then began her most wondrous tale.

"It began a week or so ago...I had been sitting silently by my Guildmaster, Skyshroud, listening to talk of the Swords of Darkness. I paid little mind to it, other than to note that Silver Cross was involved somehow. Suddenly Sky left the YMCA, not even dismissing himself as he went. I watched him go, and decided he would tell me if he needed me.

Apparently he did, for shortly he returned and asked me to follow him. We walked through a portal to Skara Brae and sat at the bank. I did not know what our business was there, but assumed that it was a small matter concerning guild funds and that he must need some help. As we sat, making small talk a man approached me. He was an elderly man, who’s name unfortunately I do not remember. He had very kind eyes....yes kind eyes. Looked at me, this old man, smiling most approvingly, then nodded at Skyshroud. At that moment he placed into my hands a sword."

Anna paused a moment, the trembling becoming more violent. Her knees jumped up and down, her fingers digging into the worn leather pack. She took a deep breath and continued on.

"Now I was shocked at first, not knowing what this sword was for, but upon hearing the tale of the Swords of Darkness from this man I began to fear. Not only for myself, but for everyone in the world around me. He told me I must guard it with my life, that I must bring together this sword with the other four, and to keep them far from Lord Vecna. He warned me to never wield it, for its power would overcome me. He also told me that the sword had chosen me. ME!? I could hardly believe that a girl as simple as I could be chosen for anything, and certainly not something of this importance. But before I could ask any questions, he walked away...then completely vanished.

"I held this sword a moment longer, looking into the dark smokey metal, it hummed in my hands, as if singing to me. I could feel it’s power in my grasp. I quickly tucked it away, hiding it from sight.

"Skyshroud swore to protect me, but from what I will tell you next, you will see that there is no way for him to carry his vow..."

I stared at her in quiet awe and disbelief. It was then she opened the pack a little to let me peek inside. Indeed the sword was there, and I too shuddered at the mere sight of it.

"Anna, which sword is this?" I asked, for I was concerned for the girls life.

"It is the Sword of Power, the most evil of them all"

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The group gathered at the UOSS Tower (121o 6'N, 57o 56'E - East of Dungeon Wrong), then they headed off to Destard.

As you can see from the screen-shot, it's back to the old WNH ways, everything in monochrome and the body count HUGE!!

So anyone out there with a deathwish, see you next Wednesday 6PM PST (9PM EST) at the UOSS Tower.

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i have decided on the final outcome for my stuff after much consideration and reading.. i sha'll have an auction tonight (Thursday the 10th) at 6pm PST (9pm EST) in which i shall sell off everything i own and all the money made along with all the money i currently have will be given over to the YMCA which i use to frequent all the time in my characters youth. I would very much like for all to come and get some great deals on items some of the more important things are listed here (taking a look through things right now)

1) Small Tower completly stocked and decorated with various items for a merchant including boards, ingots, cloth, bottles, potion kegs (some filled some partially filled), recall scrolls, reagents and more! house will be open for viewing before the auction on it begins and will be the last item up for auction.

2) 2x St. pattys day green mugs
3) Leather Dye Tub
4) Full Jars
5) 51 arcane gems
6) 5 statues from this years christmas
7) 7 suits of leather armor in diffrent colors along with various female peices (all viewable on Tilda at the house thats for auction)
8) 16 bells from x-mas last year
9) Complete X-mas 97 gift bag
10) valentines package: 17 various Colored Muffins, were originally candys for valentines day of 1998(i think), rose from Jevlar from v-day 1999, pink bottle of champagne (mislabeled thanks to osi) also from v-day 1999 all comes in a bag saying Happy valentines Day. 11) Holiday Time Peice from X-mas 1999

seems like this is all there is after looking around and discovering that because of the new unlocking code everything i owned in a tower belonging to me and my friend is under her control :x

The Auction will be held in my tower at 52o33'N 37o3'E in trammel. just west of the magnolia meuseum (LdyHawkes)[Magdalena Museum - Joram]. i will also be on the community UOAM server for those who have trouble finding the place (if it's up)

WARNING: because i am very sick the auction may be moved.. i will try my hardest to hold it tonight but if curcumstances change i will post here about the change in date/time

and would a person on behalf of the YMCA please post a reply if you will be present to accept the cheque afterwards.

Calin, Prince of the elves

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UO Stratics Volunteers are required to:

• Be a talented writer


• Be an active, knowledgeable member of the Atlantic community


• Be willing to attend events and quests, interview VIPs, report news of interest to the community


• Be able to dedicate a minimum of six hours per week to writing and/or posting news items


• Have a familiarity with basic HTML


• Be pro-active

• Real name


• Contact email address


• ICQ number (if applicable)


• Character name (this must be the name of the character you will be using as your potential shard reporter)


• Rate your HTML knowledge from 1-10, where 1 is poor and 10 is phenomenal


• Answer this: Why do you wish to be a shard reporter for UO Stratics?


• Include a brief writing sample, no more than 500 words (pictures are not welcomed, and please cut and paste your writing into an email, no attachments!)


• Any questions?

Good luck to all applicants!

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Just to clarify, there's a considerable difference between the subscription-based business model and the internet game room (IGR) model currently employed in Korea.

In summary, the IGR model has game rooms renting concurrent IPs, or "seats" of a game on a monthly basis. If a game room buys 5 IPs of a game, then a maximum of 5 players at once can play that game from that room. However, there's no limit to the number of players that can access the game from that seat during the month, and many game rooms are open 24 hours a day. In some instances, players can also create a virtually unlimited number of accounts from within IGRs, and this can make it difficult to truly report how many "real" players are participating.

Within the IGRs, players pay a small fee per hour (around $2 US) to use a machine, and can play any game they'd like or simply surf the web. (Starcraft, for instance, is hands-down the most popular game in the Korean IGRs.)

(UO and EQ are currently the largest subscription-based PSW MPOGs in the world, while UO has also recently entered the IGR market in Korea.)

-Tajima

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On the MyUO Discussion Boards, Hanse commented on how BODs were affected in Publish 15:

Now that Publish 15 is on all shards, we'd like to explain further what changes were made to Bulk Order Deeds.

1) Fame rewards are scaled depending on the difficulty of the deed. The fame reward message is supposed to be in line with monster fame gain messages, but it is not working properly. We're working on fixing this issue.

2) Fame is now scaled by blacksmithy skill. This means if you have no blacksmithy skill, you will not gain fame. The scale is a percentage of skill out of 100. IE: If you are at 70 blacksmithy, you will receive roughly 70% of the fame reward.

3) Colored deeds are now scaled by percentage of blacksmithy skill out of 100. You can still get colored deeds at 70 skill, but you cannot receive the topmost colors at 70 skill.

4) An exploit was fixed with the time duration between getting bulk order deeds.

We held off on announcing this information as it could have been exploited prior to the publish going live on all shards.

Thanks to everyone for the input folks gave for improvements to the system!

-Hanse
UO Live Designer

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There won't be any. :)

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

Actually, there is a very good fictional reason for the lack of guns. Technology exists as a way for us to do things that we cannot do (or wish to improve on) with our own innate abilities. With a machine gun, I can kill more people (sorry for the reference) than I can with my bare hands. But, in UO we live in a world where virtually anyone can learn magic, allowing him or her to cast fire and lightning from their hands and even create earthquakes! Why would anyone bother making a gun when they can do that!?
:)

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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We use player ideas all the time. The problem with a ruling council from players votes is there is no way to make sure Sir Pimpsalot doesn't win.

Also, why should we do that and where do we draw the line?

and….

Oh, I have taken suggestions made by one player with no huge public support simply because I thought it was a good idea that I thought fit with what we are doing. That's my point. Majority doesn't always rule. Sometimes the idea that gets burried in the slew of other topics is better than the one that may have hundreds of people behind it.

The scenarios are FULL of designs based on ideas from players

And…

Like I said, we have taken notice and scenario 2 had tons of stuff in it from player suggestions. Stuff like the in-game books, the sub-skill craftable books, some of the monster AI, and even the arcane clothing was based on a player idea. Sometimes I read an idea that I really like but it doesn't fit with the fiction. Other times I read a fantastic idea, but it's far too large of a system for us to implement at this time. And other times I read an idea that I disagree with (like anti-virtues) and I explain why in those cases.

The real issue is that we have a limited amount of time (I do have a life outside of the office ya know! No, really, I do! :P) and more good ideas than we could ever hope to implement.

and…

I'll admit I am not a big fan of making a design, coding it, testing it, etc that only one person will benefit from. We did have an idea early in the scenario 2 design to create a plaque with all of the names of the players that helped (and we'd have to design what "helped" entailed exactly), but some code and time issues forced us to scrap it. I still think something like that could solve the issue you are talking about though but it's a little (actually, a lot) more difficult than we first thought it would be.

When asked about how the design team works…

When we brainstorm, yea, it's pretty much like that. But, we eat tim-tams and tater-tots though. ;)

Hehe, it's a little more complicated than that, but yes, it's a fun job. A lot of our work we don't talk about much is lots of documentation (sorta like how cop shows rarely show them filling out paperwork) and as a manager, I do a lot of post-analysis and design justication docs.

Customized clothing is a very cool idea, but, every piece of clothing would need its own art. Sorta the same way the arcane clothing was done.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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On a shard where Publish 15 is active, you can make potions directly into a keg. You must have a keg that already has at least one of the desired potions in it in the top level of your backpack, and an empty bottle. An empty keg won't work, and you must have the bottle. When you make a potion, the game searches kegs directly in your backpack (not any subcontainer) for any that already contain potions of that type. If the keg can hold one more potion, then the potion just made immediately goes into the keg and the bottle is returned.

It's not the ideal way to do have designed it, but due to a multitude of circumstances it was the only way it could have gotten done.

--
Vex
Designer, UO Live

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For those who are interested, the first week of content for the next scenario has been published to the Test Center 2 shard. This publish also includes the Sacrifice portion of the Virtue System. As always, please report any bugs you may find to [email protected]. When submitting a bug report to our QA department, please remember to include the following information:

• Your UO account name (do not include your password)
• The time, date, shard, and facet of the occurrence
• What steps you took that led up to the bug
• Whether or not you tried to repeat the bug, and if you succeeded

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The first week of scenario three (which includes Sacrifice) is live and on Test Center two. Mostly we are testing a merge between scenario 3 and Publish 15. Note that we do not plan on putting future "scenario 3" weeks on a test center.

We should have a good idea as to the start date for the scenario pretty soon. :)

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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We will be releasing a client patch on Wednesday, January 9th CST. This patch contains the following changes:

3D Client

• The help text for a profession will be shown when you pass your mouse over the icon during character creation.
• Fixed a crash bug associated with list boxes.
• Fixed a crash bug related to Ilshenar.
• Added support for next scenario.
• Addressed a crash bug related to the party system.
• Fixed an issue involving the loading of spell icons from the desktop file.
• Spell icons should now dock together when loaded from desktop file.
• Paperdoll should now open from the desktop file – even when you have a status bar already up.
• Dragging groups of docked items around should now cause all the objects to draw on top of other interfaces.

Both Clients

• Fixed an issue involving sound volume.
• Various localization files.

The current version should be 3.0.6j for both the 2D and 3D clients.

If you have any difficulty receiving this patch, please check the following:

• Check the “Patch” directory within your Ultima Online directory (the default location is C:\\Program Files\Ultima Online\Patch). This directory should be empty. Any files in this directory should be deleted.
• If you are unable to connect to the patch server at all, and are using an original (Non-T2A) version of Ultima Online, you may need to update your verinfo file. For details on updating this file, please see the information posted at http://support.uo.com/tech_6.html.
• Run a virus scan on your computer. Undetected viruses may cause conflicts with patching Ultima Online. For information on up-to-date virus detection software, please visit http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/vso/default.asp.

If after trying the above, you are still experiencing difficulty patching the Ultima Online client, please contact Technical Support at [email protected].

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It was finally here. Dormax could hardly believe that this day had finally come. The day when Elminster, First Lord of the Rangers, would be brought home… or would he?

A morning of anticipation and afternoon of worry, those were the signs that the old ranger had been awake far to long. Sleepless and pacing, Dormax walked the length of the Rangers Tradespot Bar and Grill, home of Elminster and guildhall of the Rangers. “’Tis almost time,” he said, setting his jaw firm. “Dormax, ya old fool,” he spoke to himself, “Still thy worrying; ‘tis a babes thing to fret over something beyond thy control.”

The pigeons had flown out almost an hour ago to every corner of the globe. He had no idea at hat time that the party of Elminster’s rescuers was already preparing for there place in history. Dormax went to the city of paladins, Trinsic. Once there his wife, Black Cat, and Tybalt joined him. The three rangers looked each other over to assure that every sword was sharpened, every bootstrap tight. They were going to need every advantage they could muster.

Cat went to the Counselors Hall, where Dormax was to greet the called adventurers. When the time came, finally, Dormax and his growing party at the bank, for others had arrived there as well, walked to the meeting place. A large group was quickly gathering.

“What’s this?” Dormax asked of himself. “One, two, three… five… eight… and more coming presently??” His astonishment was overwhelming. Never before had such a crowd gathered. For they were poised, without concern for their own lives, to risk all in the endeavor of saving Elminster from his kidnappers!

Dormax, after hailing those assembled, mounted the stairs of the great Counselors Hall. From that perch, Dormax related the tale of what had happened so far. There was not much information to go on. Elminster was looking for a supply of fertile dirt. The kidnappers were “not entirely human.” And, they were lead by a brutish creature that forced them to toil in the earth endlessly. Those were the known facts. But was it enough?

There was an aging mage and scholar whom Dormax had visited from time to time. His name was Thoran Yo. “Thoran is a man of many talents and also a scholar of great knowledge,” he said to the host. “He’s a bit barmy at times, and not altogether there, but he’s the one, if anyone, who can help us determine the location of the kidnappers.” The old mage told everyone that he had a magical rune that could take them all to Thoran’s home in eastern Britannia. Sadly though, he didn’t know what to do with it, for Dormax was now a mage and knew nothing of the magical arts. A man in black who called himself Bane offered to create a magical gate through which the company could travel across the land in the blink of an eye. Bane needed only the rune.

After some time, Dormax was able to locate the rune, which had become buried deep within his backpack of supplies. When everyone acknowledged that they were ready, Bane cast a spell, and a glowing blue gateway was opened. The party rushed through the portal. Dormax, Cat, and Guenevere were left behind by mistake as they could not get through the doorway in time. And, much to their chagrin, Bane had left them without rune or magic. They were forced to ponder their situation and eventually Bane returned to once again open up the gateway to the old wizard’s home.

Thoran was found in his log cabin home in the eastern lands of Britannia. It seems that he was working diligently when the party interrupted his golem training by bursting through his front door. Not a little surprised, Thoran and Dormax greeted each other and Dormax related the tale in brief to his wizardly friend. “Fertile dirt? Brutish did you say?” Thoran thought long about the latter.

From the crowd, one of those present shouted, “Orcish Brute!!” and suddenly there was a gasp as each in turn called up stories or experience with those devilish creatures.

“Hmm,” Thoran replied, “I know of a place like that. I shall gate you there, but I can only get you so close and you will have to walk the rest of the way.” Whispers, shouts and introspective thought filled the room with talk of orc brutes. Dormax remained ignorant of those creatures true power at first, for they were only stories to him. The others present were quick to inform him of the beast’s capability.

Thoran, himself, was unable to come with the party; his bad back preventing him from doing much adventuring better suited to the younger folk. Thoran supplied the host with several scrolls of resurrection and several that he said could be used to summon demons from the very Pit if needed. The group talked a bit more about the “brute.” They formulated their plans and tried to ensure every one of what to expect from such a monster. It was even said by one fellow, “I’ve seen them take on dragons and win!!” That sent another shiver through the crowd.

When all was said and done, Thoran opened a gate portal to an area of the world known now as Orc Valley. In the old days that Dormax remembered, it was called Rat Valley because the ratmen had claimed it as their own. In recent times, the orcs tribes had taken over the valley’s southern end… where the party had to go.

Demons were summoned upon the group’s arrival and the battles began. The orc’s of the valley were taken by surprise as a dozen men and women, armed to the teeth, descended upon them. In short order, the orcs were pushed back and the party made there way to the gaping black entrance of the Orc Cave.

The party entered. There was little room to move about in the cave and the demons went to do their work of utterly destroying any initial resistance that the orcs of the cavern were able to put up. Before the spell binding them to our world faded, the demons had vanquished many of the orcs with the party defeating the rest so that everyone could continue onto the second floor of the dungeon.

The second level was filled with dangers. Orcish magi threw spells at them while orcish bombers threw exploding vials. If that was not enough, orc lords and captains jumped in with swords and maces. Under conditions like these, it was a wonder that there were no more casualties then there were. Only one of the rescuers fell in the end. He was resurrected and the congregated group continued.

Unknown to Dormax, however, a few of the rescuers had already gotten away and were scouting ahead of the mass. As the party neared the entrance to the third floor of the cavern, through a dark mining tunnel, one of the scouts returned. “We found the Brute!” was the shout and it rang through the air of the cavern like a crystal bell in a cathedral. Everyone knew what lie ahead. Dormax, worried about the safety of the group’s members stayed toward the rear to ensure that no one was left behind. By the time he got there the brute was engaged by most (if not all) of the party.

Swords, spells, bardic music, arrows, teeth and claws!! It was quite a display and the brute took it like an orc! It was some battle as the brute summoned other orcs to his aid. It seemed that his supply of them would never run out. But, perseverance in all things, the party at long last won out in the end and there was great rejoicing when the monster finally fell!

The group spread out in the new cavern before them. It was huge by standards of the rest of the cave. Two main branches were found off the cavern. One contained earth elementals. The other contained Elminster!!!

Elminster, cold and weak and half dead, was found collapsed in the far end of the cavern. It was there that the orcs had kept him these long weeks, and it was only hope that was keeping him alive. And, because the orcs had delighted in torturing him, he was naked. He was immediately offered a horse to assist him and a pair of pants until he could find something warmer. There was pride and elation as word spread and the party gathered around him.

Suddenly… Another orc brute appeared with a host of other orcs, bombers and captains. Without fear, the rescuers tried to divert attention away from Elminster, but one of the bombers caught site of him and must have figured out why these humans were intruding on their territory. It attacked Elminster with flaming oil! Dormax quickly tossed a magical rune for the Rangers’ guildhall to Elminster. There was a sparkle of magic and Elminster was gone, gated along with half of the host, out of the dungeon. The other half was just finishing up the last of the orcs when the portal closed. So that made twice that Dormax had been left behind. But Elminster was safely away and onward to freedom.

The remaining group, half the original number, gated to the Rangers Tradespot Bar and Grill. They were contemplating where Elminster might have been taken to, for neither he nor his protectors were top be found, when suddenly another gate opened before them. From its glowing light Elminster and the others came.

“Hooza!” was heard… and many a “Woohoo!” Once back to safety and greetings and thank-yous out of the way, Elminster related his story.

He had been mining the fertile dirt within the cavern for a magical experiment, though he did not say anything more specific on that. It would seem that the orcs were none to keen on the idea, for they followed him back to the Tradespot. Using a trick of poison, they drugged Elminster and bound him. They forced an unfortunate wandering healer who happened by to write a note of ransom because none of the orcs could write in common. The vile orcs killed the peaceful healer and took Elminster back to their cave in south Yew. He told everyone that the Brute even threatened and planned on eating him, but the captors told it of the ransom idea. It was then that Dormax discovered that Elminster spoke a bit of orcish. The brute, crafty in the ways of war and evil had come up with a plan… collect the ransom, and then eat the victim. A plan that failed utterly!

The rescuers were provided food and ale and all celebrated to their hearts content within the Tradespot’s warm interior. All were pleased!! For they had completed a grand adventure… but the question remains… will the orcs take revenge? And, many present promised their swords in times of need to Dormax, Elminster, and The Rangers of the Forest League!

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Tomorrow on Thursday, the time has come for yet another „Pirates Black Market“ in Buccaneer’s Den. Everyone who likes the taste of a fresh fish or a hot grog is invited to go there - either as a visitor or seller.


[Archive picture]

The market will be starting around 8.00 pm and will be built at the docks with the help of the “Brotherhood of Light” [Bruderschaft des Lichtes/BdL].

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Impy's Artic Faire

Look what we've added for this week:
Blessed Tunic
Ship Model
Pumice
A "real" Open Book

Don't forget you can bid on these and other GREAT items at Impy's Artic Faire:
Wednesday, January 9th, 9pm by the Eastern Sky
Thursday, January 10th, 9pm by the Eastern Sky

For a complete list of items up for auction this week, please visit: www.impys.net

~Impy's Staff

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From the Chronicles of Elder Raticker:

Moving through the air in a green Shimmering Globe, Raticker found Darma in the southern reaches of Moonglow. Deep within the forests, the screams of children could be heard throughout the darkened trees. Gliding down to an open field, he stepped out of his invulnerable shield to a small campfire. The scene was a battle, only the blood and carnage was of children. "What have you done?! screamed Raticker.

"There must be 50 children here. You have gone to far Darma, the citizens will surley move against us. Your appetite for blood is out of control. Speak fool sister!" cried Raticker as he approached the figure of Darma covered in blood.

"Do not judge me, master. Please! I could not help myself. I am weak." pleaded Darma as she began to clean herself.

"We must cleanse this area immediately." stated Raticker. "Listen!" They both stood and listened in the darkness. Farther to the north shouting could be heard, and the ring of metal. Horses where moving towards thier location. "We have no time, you have endangered our mission! The town guard has been alerted. Quickly, we must leave this place before the fools arrive."

"Why should we care, lets destroy them now, they will then know the power we command. Let us link and give them a show of our true power. They would never stand against us should they see the blaze of Azure Fire wrought against their weak and mindless Wizards! Only then would we be able to open the gate without incident!" pleaded Darma in her lustfull state for blood.

"You have taken much upon yourself, and forced me to take a stand without a plan. In this, you have undermined my authority. We will discuss your punishment later." replied Rat in a calm voice.

Turning towards the west, Raticker began to cast a spell. Opening a gate he brought forth Farbanti and Mystic Rose. Each arrived with suprised eyes and terror as they viewed the torturous scene surrounding Darma.

"We all must link and face the coming army of men attempting to destroy us. Darma shall be punished for her actions, but now we have no time, the enemy is upon us and they must be shown our direct threat to their civilization. Everyone prepare to link, when they stand before us we shall dispense their souls to their creator." ordered Raticker.

Moving together and linking arms the four members of The Circle began to chant in a strange and foriegn language. The small band of soldiers and citizens approached from the north. Several men dropped to their knees and vomited at the sight of the death of their children. The small cavalry stood ground as the mages began powerfull spells behind them, moving to the front White Lotus of the Lost Horizens Community began to address the four creatures. Surrounded by Jon VonDarkmoor, Jesreel, Dean Martin, and Andor, White Lotus felt apprehension as to the security of her small force.

"Creatures, what have you done?" cried Lotus. "You will pay for this. We will defeat you, not because it is right, but to avenge our children. Mages fire!

With that the mages let loose Lightning, Wizard Fire and Poison Fields. Archers let loose arrows, and the cavalry advanced with deadly poisoned weapons. The four stood their ground and brought up the green globe. Slowly, they began to rise into the air. The archers continued to fire, the mages raised powerful energy bolts to no avail as the shield protected the four. Crackling across the sky, large sheets of Azure Fire began to decend on the defensless force. Exploding on the ground, troops where thrown from horses. Bodies where ripped in half and death again gripped the once peaceful forest.

"Retreat!" cried Lotus. The band scattered across the open field. Staying with their leader and moving towards the east. Jon VonDarkmoor looked back to see the destruction.

"Lotus look!" he screamed over the noise of retreat and panting horses.

As White Lotus slowed and looked back, she finally saw the one thing she needed to possibly break the cycle of death which had been unleashed upon the land. As the men fled back into the forest, Darma lay upon the ground with the three creatures tending their fallen comrad. The mages had penetrated the shield. It was vulnerable, and Lotus had an idea of what now to do.

"Fools!" ranted Raticker. "We have shown weakness. Everyone back to the caverns. We must move quickly!.

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Cove Tavern Night
Time: Saturday 12th of January, 18 CET.

We once again welcome ye all to the Tavern Night of Cove Tradeport. We invite ye to taste good Yew wine or perhaps a mug of ale.

Thou can find the Tavern of Cove Tradeport at North of Cove (Trammel). For more detailed map go to our tome at http://cove.rper.org/

Hopefully we see thee there,
The Gaveston Family

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We've build up a new rune library on Drachenfels - the Hunter's Lounge Rune Library.

You will find more than 800 runes to almost every known and unknown
location, in Trammel including the Lost Lands.
The library contains all treasure map locations , all shops , other rune libraries, dungeons, mining spots and much more.
It is located on the 1st floor in "Hunter's Lounge" , the large tower a few screens west of Britain Cemetery.
The Coordinates are: 12° 49'N 3° 9'W .

On ground floor you´ll find Normal Dye, Black Dye, Special Dye and
Leather Dye tubs. Feel free to use them as well.

Also visit our vendors. Here you´ll find recall/mark scrolls, runes,
rune books and bandages. If you have any comments or suggestions,
please use the 3 red books in front of Peter the Monk or contact us on icq: Piotr 47146349 or Gil 98955123 .

Thats all for now, we hope to see you soon.

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Several issues were raised in this thread that I feel need to be addressed.

It's true that the "purple lady" painting doesn't fit flush against a wall, but GMs will normally edit the "purple lady" painting so that it does. I do not know why a GM did not appear "in person" to this particular call, nor do I know why this painting was not changed at the time of your call. Whenever a customer feels that they did not receive appropriate service, they are encouraged to write [email protected] to provide feedback about the situation. An important thing to provide in this email is the name of the GM, and the details of the situation. We will address this internally to make sure that everyone is still on the same page. However, it is worth pointing out that the decorating tool will work on these paintings so that they can be placed.

We continue to have Game Masters in four regions: US (in Austin), England, Japan, and Korea--but GM Support has not moved to India. There are no GMs operating in India. These four teams all work together to provide service, and sometimes assist in covering shards outside of their geographic region.

The GMs are in-game support representatives, and customers cannot speak to GMs on the phone, by calling Tech Support or otherwise. Our Tech Support team is best able to assist you with, for example, patching questions and hardware concerns, rather than certain nuances of virtual systems that exist only in-game. We certainly strive to know all the hot topics our customers are concerned about, but there are so many aspects of the game that no single person knows everything there is to know about UO. Frankly, Tech Support does not get many contacts about this issue, so it is not a hot topic for them. When a customer has a concern about the paintings, they are typically addressed in email support or in game, rather than Tech Support.

We are dedicated to providing our customers with the best support possible. This has not changed. This isn't a matter of nationality, it's a matter of how our team operates. I'm confident that the team we have is united in their desire to give great support, as well as their ability to deliver. I've very proud of how this team has grown, and their ability to deliver great service on a consistent basis.

Canyon

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Publishes and Patches are two completely different things.

Publish is short for Server Publish, and refers to updates being published to shard servers. These are the game changes that generally are published during the day and don't actually take effect until servers undergo maintenance per their normal schedules.

Patches, or Client Patches, are game updates to the client itself. These are the ones that make you wait while files are downloaded to your computer. Once the patch server is updated with a new client patch, every UO game client downloads those files on startup.

Sometimes a client patch coincides with a server publish. Often, the two happen independently. This is why the distinction between Patch and Publish is important.

--
Vex
Designer, UO Live

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The tower chamberlain, Angus McTaggart, awoke from a terrifying nightmare. In the nightmare, a tall man with an unnatural paleness had leapt oh him, throwing him backwards on the ground. Angus tried to get up, but the man had him pinned and was sitting on his chest. It took all of his effort to draw in a breath as the weight of the man pressed down on him. The man's eyes seemed to glow and look right through his soul. The man's mouth opened, revealing four long fangs. Angus screamed and found himself awake. But yet, for a moment, the oppressive weight on his chest remained as a shadowy form seemed to dissipate before his eyes. After a few moments, Angus was breathing again, and realized there was nothing in the room with him.

Angus lit the candle beside his cot in the work room of the tower. Chills ran through his spine. He listened and heard nothing unusual. Angus came to the inconvenient realization that he would not be able to return to sleep unless he made a round of the tower to insure there was nothing unusual. This happened from time to time - a strange noise, an odd feeling, followed by a round of the tower only to find that nothing was amiss. He fully expected that nothing would be amiss this time, but he had to be sure.

The horses were asleep at the stable. The sentry at the first floor had the look of infinite boredom and reported nothing unusual. All quiet on the second floor and the great hall. He watched a mouse scurry along one of the walls of the third floor, as one of the house cats sat licking a paw and deciding whether or not it would give chase. The war room was empty. Angus continued on to the tower's roof, and as he reached the top of the stairs, all the blood drained from his body as the sight he beheld hit him like a war axe to the chest.

Angus raised the alarm, and soon after members of the Highland Guard began to arrive to see the gory scene. Dismembered bodies and blood were spread along the roof forming a demonic cross. Who had done this? To what purpose?

The roof was cleansed, and a search of the tower and surrounding woods was ordered. Hetfield Macleod, the regimental piper, found another dismembered body and vials of blood in the nearby woods, after giving chase to a shadowy figure.

The Commander of the Highland Guard has appointed Sgt. Fire to conduct the investigation into the murders and the desecration of the tower. The evidence is safeguarded as the Guard hopes to present it to someone capable of drawing information from it.

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The council meeting for the City of Yew will be held this Saturday January 12th at 5 CST. We ask that all who wish to attend meet at the Abbey doors [Trammel] and a gate will be provided.

We would like to let all know that Yew is very much active still and will be running events and quests in the near future.

Mastermind, Commander Yew Militia

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Due to popular demand, I am continuing the Gold Caravan series of events. I know that many bad guys took a lot of counts, mostly from non Caravan members it seemed, so Ill warn everyone again that murder counts are always possible.

OOD and PAS will not give any murder counts this week, but I cannot control other members of other guilds. So come at your own risk.

Week 2's Gold Caravan will also take place from Trinsic, but this time its destination is Britain(always in Felucca of course).

So start building your barricades and anything else you might want to devise to try to stop our gold shipment. We will attempt to stay on the road at all times, but may deviate slightly if we are attacked or are chasing down our loose packies. *grins*

I have upped the amount of gold to 150k for this week's Gold Caravan, and I will also add some minor and mid range rares to the packhorses and packllamas contents for this trip.

If we arrive at Britain, I will give our OOD mercenary friends a reward from my personal coffers equal to half of what gets through, whether its on packies or on PAS members. PAS members will only pick up gold from packies that fall prey to the enemy.

If we arrive safely in Britain with any of the rares we transport, I will hand them to citizens at the West Bank Brit, or to caravan protectors if no citizens are at the bank.

The Gold Caravan time will change slightly. Caravans will now load up and prep until 8:30pm cdt, and will leave for their destinations as close to 8:30pm cdt as is possible.

I invite any friends and allies of PAS to come along and help us try to fend off the scurvy and devilish thieves and pks that want a piece of this Caravan. We will NOT be making a round trip as was attempted in the first Caravan. This trip is from Trinsic to Britain only.

As always, I ask all Caravan members to PLEASE NOT GIVE ANY MURDER COUNTS to anyone during this event. Theres nothing worse for this event than to have the bad guys keep getting murder counts and then eventually not show for future events.

As promised, I will add a new wrinkle each week to the Caravan defense. I hope to make this increasingly harder (and fun) for the bad guys to win and get the gold and other items.

Any gold carried successfully to Britain will carry over to next week's Caravan. I will consider warring guilds I trust if they wish to attack the Caravan, but I reserve the right to exclude guilds that lost their chances in the past at rp events. And again, this will only help you with counts from PAS, but will give you many orange targets which to attack freely.

This will also be a bit unique, as several of the participants helping PAS will be in the same room at my house for this event. *grins*

So we might all lag or crash at once if my cable modem goes down. The PAS and OOD visiting are coming for the UO faire, and staying at my house to save on hotel costs (since i live in Austin).

I hope to see many of you there for this event!

KD

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We are targeting to release the "Publish 15 Updates and Bug Fixes" changes listed in Testing for Next Update to the rest of the North American shards, to be active following their scheduled morning maintenance periods on Wednesday, January 9th (local server time). These changes should be active on all remaining shards following their scheduled maintenance periods on Thursday, January 10th (local server time). The changes will be added to Latest Game Updates once the publish is active on all shards.

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Great Lakes Sea Serpent Slaughter Coming January 13

The Fishing Council of Britannia is pleased to announce a Net Toss on Sunday the 13th at 5:00 pm EST(4 CST).
The public net event will be hosted by the noble Kyra of Kyra's famous Homes of the Exotic and Illustrious tour. The gracious Kyra will be donating around 30 nets for the event to celebrate the opening of her small Homes Tour Tower (which will have its grand opening on the 20th).

There may be a few free Tour Packs given out at the event as well. The FCB is proud to host a Kyra's tour vendor at the FCB Tower. Hope to see you all there on the 13th :) As usual, the toss (also known as a Sea Serpent Slaughter) will be held at the Maginica Trammel docks. Make ready your weapons and spells; them kraken be deadly!

--Gem, FCB Fleet Captain

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Question: How did my blessed item just get stolen!? I thought Blessed items were unstealable?

***Blessed items are not unstealable unless they are in the top level of your backpack.***

Blessed items--such as bank checks, dry-docked boats, and many holiday gift items (snow piles, holiday timepieces, etc.)--are said to be "no loot/no steal." By "no loot" we mean that, should your character die, his blessed item will not appear in his corpse, but it will re-appear in your backpack upon your resurrection.

By "no steal" we mean that the blessed item cannot be stolen from your backpack by another character, even if that other character has enough Stealing skill to take an unblessed version of that item from you.

From our Game Wizard:

---

Keep blessed items in the top level of your pack: Newbie items and blessed items cannot be looted or stolen. But bags can. If you place your newbie items or blessed items in a bag, someone can just nab the bag through the use of the stealing skill, taking your blessed items with it! Keep these items in the top level of your pack, meaning in the main backpack window, and they'll stay safe.

---

If you placed your blessed item in a sub-pack, and not on the top level of your backpack, then it’s possible that the sub-pack was stolen and the blessed item went along with it.

Note that a blessed item is similar to a newbie item, although there are some differences. Also from our Game Wizard:

---

The best way to tell if an item is "newbied" is to use the Item ID skill on it. Newbied items will report a value of 0 gold coins when you use the Item ID skill on them. All other items have a value above 0 gold coins. Please note, Item ID wands do not report the value of the item.

Another way to tell if an item is newbied is to try to sell it to an NPC. NPC's will not offer to buy these items from you, since they are worth nothing (0 gold coins).

All of your starting items and clothing as a new character are newbied, and will stay with you if your character dies. Newbied items do not stay with characters who are murderers.

Newbied items cannot be locked down in a house, and will decay extremely fast if they are left on the ground or outside a container (such as your backpack).

---

=========
Sannio
Online Community Coordinator, UO
Origin Systems

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…we aren't modernizing UO.

The addition of the few (and there are very few) "technology" based creatures isn't an after-effect of modernization, but rather the effects of a new force (Exodus) entering the realm. Those that know what Exodus is (from Ultima III) will know the basis for the creatures. These "technology" creatures don't represent the majority of the expansion and most scenarios wont even have technology-based elements in them at all. In fact, we only have 2 or 3 technology-based monsters in the expansion and all of them are being used in scenario three. Scenario four doesn't have any and the basic outline for scenario five doesn't have any either.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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2nd Annual London Player Meet 2002

Based on the success of the First London Player Meet in June 2001 we "UO players mainly of the Europa Shard" have decided to hold another one. The meet will take place in London on Saturday 23rd February 2002. And is open to any UO players able to make it. For full details on the event you should check http://www.sossaria.co.uk if anyone wishes to submit an idea/query related to the meet or just wishes to be kept up to speed via email notification they should email me [email protected]

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Doombringer Chronicles Part I

The Doombringer Chronicles Part I are finished and up for your reading enjoyment. Part I starts out Oct 1997 on the Chessy shard and finishes up July 1999 on the Europa Shard. This is part I of what is going to be 3 or 4 parts. This first part has about 110 pages and over 1100 screen shots.

Use the following url then follow the link provide.

http://doomworld.ng22.com/

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The Soulbane Chronicles

Hail and well met fellow Britannians!! My name is Kendrik Soulbane and I have created, for the friends and family I have on the Pacific Shard, a story based on the world we all live in - the world of Ultima Online! Please take a moment to visit the site found here at http://geocities.com/kendriksoulbane

Most all the characters you will meet in the Chronicles are actual players on the Pacific shard, some friends... some family... and of course, an enemy here and there =) The story is far from over yet, so stay tuned in the weeks to come!

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A few days ago, Layna, a girl of 12 years was kidnapped by a marauding party of Severed Head Orcs in Spiritwood and taken to their cursed town Nohkmahr. Steveo, always being the one holding his protective hand over the young girl, immediately sent out scouts to investigate the whereabouts of the kidnapped girl. Apparently, as the scouts later reported, the poor girl was prepared to be sacrificed to the orcish Bloodgod in a hideous and gruesome ritual in only a few days time.

Yesterday evening a large army gathered in Spiritwood to set out to Nohkmahr in order to free Layna from the orcish hordes. Amongst the people were members of the Knights of Virtue, Custodes Fati, The Knights Templar, the Order of the Ankh and many more. Once the army was gathered and the plans made, we set off to Nohkmahr. 

Upon arriving in the town of Dreamstone the army grew even larger and singing songs of battle we marched towards the encampment of the orcish horde at their fort. From within the fort we heard them singing and mocking us, but determinate to free the poor girl the army rode on, closing in on the fort  and their doomed inhabitants.

What followed then was a battle to remember fer sure. The orcs fiercely defended the front gate and it took many brave warriors to finally breach it. We had to be swift and deadly now, before the orcs could finish their work with Layna and our efforts would be in vein. Slowly we gained the upper hand though and drove back the orcs into their fort and slew them one by one. On the unconscious body of a foul orc  known as Kra'Zug a key was found and finally Layna herself, held by chains in the back of the fort. Upon freeing the badly wounded and shaking girl we set off to return to Spiritwood. Upon our return Layna was immediately taken to Maria to tend her wounds and watch over her the next few days.

So weary traveller, keep open ya eyes, the Severed Heads are up and about again. Prepare yerself well before travelling the Yew roads!

Kind regards
Pad O'Lion

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I'll address the ones here that I am responsible for or know about. While I know you say you only represent the GL group, I have to make my response keeping in mind the entire community. :)

1. In Fiction
- Why Lord British went away. If you cant use "Lord British" because of RG's hold on the name.. say that! "Legal issues" can mean anything, please be more specific.
--We've already said that. RG owns the rights to the name and legal issues (sorry, I have to say it) prevent us from using LB.
- We want to know who is ruling in Lord Britishes stead. There is a gap here between LB abdicating, and the next person taking over.. who is ruling in the meantime?
--Right now, we are in a Kingless land. That power vacumm has created a window for which evil (Exodus and now Blackthorn) are making a bid for power. The rest will happen (and be revealed) over time.
- We want less words and more action. Sure, we get BNN articles, but 99% of the time, the stuff mentioned in BNN articles never actually happened in the game.
--BNN articles are meant to give you clues through fictional accounts. The "real" story is told by you.
- We want our fiction written by someone who knows Ultima. you guys are messing with some fundamental plot points and it will be reeely easy to create large, gaping plot holes.
--We know Ultima. We're not perfect though, so if we do have a plot whole, please point it out to us. We take fiction very, very seriously.
- We want to know why Lord Blackthorn suddenly turned evil.
--And you will.
- We want to know why Nystul is leaving to follow Lord British.
--Mostly because Nystul sees himself as the King's aid and trusts that Dupre and Clainin can handle things.
- We want fiction that does not destroy the fiction built by Garriott.
--Agreed, although as far as UO's fiction, most of it was done by other people.

2. In game
- We are not pleased with the virtue system for a variety of reasons.
--While there are some who do not like parts of the virtue system, there are some that do like it. The system itself still has room for tweaking and already has been in numerous ways.
- We want more objects in the game that are not house decorations.
--Good, because we already have and will continue to put them in.

- We dont really like suprises that much. We would rather have documentation on new additions to the game than have to "discover it ourselves because it is a suprise"
--Don't agree with this. For many players discovery is a big part of the game. Which is why the scenario stuff is not announced. I think it would do far more harm than good if we announced stuff like new monster AI or item properties in advance. As far as game changes and new systems, I agree however and that is what the Update Center is for.
- If its something good, we dont mind waiting for it. Programming time is irrelevant to us.
--This is one I will disgaree with as well. Exanple: The scenarios have been well recieved overall and have had very, very few bugs. A lot of that is because we do take extra time with QA and we make sure we don't publish during bad times (like right before the UO World Faire). That extra time causes some delays, which while some people may not mind, some posts on the scenario board point to the contrary. Time and quality are both very important issues.
- We prefer to be treated individually and not stereotypically.
--Agreed. So do we. :)
- We would still volunteer, despite how OSI has treated their volunteers in the past.
--Sometimes decisions are taken out of our hands, whether we like it or not.
- We will respect you ang give you the benefit of the doubt if you were honest and open with us.
--Good. I don't believe I have ever been anything but. :)


Sorry I could not address all of your concerns, but I don't feel right answering something that I don't work on or know much about. Hope the ones I did cover helped though.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

Actually, no, that was on purpose. Showing someone as a villian before you learn their motivations for becoming such is a very standard fictional practice. Did we learn Darth Vader's motivations before he appeared on the screen? Nope, he just showed up and started choking people. His story wass told over time...as will Blackthorn's.

Think about it in a real world sense. How would anyone really know what Blackthorn has been up to and who he has been consorting with. None of our characters can count ourselves as close friends of his so we'd have no idea what he was up to during his absense. All we do know (or rather, will know) is that he has changed. Learning why is part of the story telling process and rushing that become it may seem odd to some people is a really bad idea.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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1. Lokie vs. Mother Theresa - Winner: Mother Theresa
2. Geryon vs. Laser - Winner: Geryon
3. WOLFEN vs. Daragon - Winner: Daragon
4. Geryon vs. Mother Theresa - Winner: Geryon
5. Daragon vs. Brad Pitt - Winner: Brad Pitt
6. Geryon vs. Brad Pitt - Winner: Geryon

Geryon was awarded a check for 1,000,000gp for earning the title of Tournament Champion. Rivendell's new Mayor, Shanna, presented the Champion with the award at a short ceremony in the town square. Overall, it was an enjoyable event, and I look forward to attending future PvP events in Rivendell and elsewhere!

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Welcome to another GRAND Week for Impy's. And yes, the headlines don't lie. You wanted it. WE got it. And IT WILL BE SOLD!! An Acient Smithy Hammer, that does seem to be a bluish/valorite color.

Auctions this week:
Wednesday, January 9th, 9pm by the Eastern Sky
Thursday, January 10th, 9pm by the Eastern Sky

Up for auction this week:
Holiday Gifts: Bells, Statues, Bags, Flutes, Candy and Muffins
Tons of Coal Ingots
Gold Robe
Eggs: Mint Green and Light Green
Dull Copper Anvil
A Garden of Plants and Trees
Bags of Maps and Bottles
Banner and Flamming Head Deeds
Several Reward Statues
A Holiday Timepiece
Several Runic Hammers including ANCIENT SMITHY HAMMER, VALORITE

As always, Runes to Riches and the Mystery Chest games will also be played this week following the auction, so please stick around and take a chance with lady luck. We'll also be posting a new "You might be a ? if..." statement to the Bulletin Board every so often. Each week we'll give 50k in Impy Auction credit to the response we like the most. The more humerous the answer, the more likely you'll be to win. Impy has asked that you please stable your pets before the auction as he is allergic to wet fur.

If you don't have a rune, please stop by one of rune vendors: StarLite (Vesper, Trammel), next door to the RD Stables (Felucca), the Sandlewood Box Inn (Dead Heaven, Felucca), Kazola’s TreeTop Keg and Winery (Felucca), Cove Merchant’s Guild and Blacksmith Shoppe (Cove, Felucca), the Mystic Portal (Trammel), the Garden City Mall (Cove, Trammel), Kyra's Home Tour Base (Trammel).

~Impy's Staff
Impy's

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Thieves flocked to Trinsic even before the caravan left, and more than one was guard whacked for attempting to steal goodies while the caravan was still under British's protection within the walled city. Just outside the city gates, independent herds of thieves stampeded all about the defenders, and only a few steps from the guard zone the first organized attack took place, as Gruumsh One-Eye (He Who Never Sleeps) led an attack by an unruly herd of ORK orcs.

Gruumsh, recoopertating from his untimely death at the ORK fortress, remembers the ensuing battle this way: "Orks neeb shineez. Wun klomp umie caravan. Gruumsh un ork horde snig un road. Meny umies come (mebbe 2-3, Gruumsh nub sure). Gruumsh hab plug nose. Umies stink. Caravan comes un orks klomp dem. Gruumsh klomp meny umies. Dey stink bahd, Gruumsh hab run away un tek dirt-nap frum stinky. Wen Gruumsh comed back dead umies all ober road. Nub caravan der.

CURD !! Gruumsh nub get eny shineez.

Mebbe next week."

Farther up the road, guilds of thieves and brigands like DP and military based guilds like ZOG were carefully constructing roadblocks. The thieves were hoping to trap the caravan in pincers where they could not escape little thieving fingers. The military types simply wanted to pause them long enough to overwhelm them in a frontal attack. A little farther up, in Golgotha, the ranks of Lich Lord Vecna's undead waited with terrible patience, having vowed that PAS would not be allowed to pass unchallenged through their territory.

Unfortunately the caravan never made it that far up the road. Before they reached the first bridge, the packies had all gone to their eternal reward and the defenders, left with nothing to defend, turned back.

Bacci (Khaldun Proprietress) disapproved of the Premature Attackulation that took place right outside the Trinsic gates, saying, "According to me scout, people was gettin guard whacked. I'm sure it be no fun fer the people that be guarding DPs future gold. Let caravan get a bit O' distance afore ye be attackin." Harmony (Shewiff of Wong) added, "The inexpewienced wootews did not wait to attack. This awowed the Cawavan Pwotectows a chance fow an easy wetweat."

Even though the caravan had returned to Trinsic, all was not quiet on the long road Vesper. For a long time after, mercenaries, thieves, and members of various guilds used the road to pick up a little extra loot, settle long held grudges, or just indulge in a bit of bloodletting. I did hear that after the last of the dust had settled, Grog (Prince of Buc's Den) smelled blood and possibly some easy pickins. He showed up with some of the shadier members of the Saurian Gathering, but the long journey caused his group to miss the bulk of the excitement.

King David of PAS says the caravans will continue, hopefully for the full 20 weeks. He is even considering upping the gold the packies carry to 150K for next week's caravan. King David understands that such a tempting array of loot is irresistible to those of low moral character. He has made PAS and OOD members swear not to hold attackers accountable for their actions when they attack the caravan. He adds that each week, the defenders strategy will change, main git a little tougher for would-be looters to snag PAS gold.

On an OC note…Those who would attack the caravan should remember that while PAS and OOD have sworn a blood oath to avoid branding as murderers those who attack the caravan, people who are not in those guilds have sworn no such oath and may not follow the rules. People who choose to attend the event are asked to not give out murder counts, but may feel no obligation to do so. Murder Blue non-PAS and non-OOD at your own risk.

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Some notes on Pub 15 and BODs in general...

1. Last I checked, the ASHs are several times more durable then normal smithing hammers. However, I do believe that they're still in need of a serious improvement in durability. When we get a chance to do this, we'll make a concerted effort to make the fix retroactive to current ASHs (unfortunately I can't guarantee it).

2. The system does not factor in how many "good" BODs have been issued for that day/week/month/year or any increment of time. It keeps no memory of past events (the only record of what deeds have been issued is a relatively simple text logging procedure for our metrics gathering purposes only, and has no code effects whatsoever). There are other reasons you're likely seeing more weapon BODs now (see #3 below).

3. Publish 15 has introduced some code that scales your BOD offer considerably by your blacksmithing skill. We're seeing too many instances of "mule" 70-skill blacksmiths created for the sole purpose of getting lots of BODs. We really don't want to encourage the mass-creation of mule characters, so you'll now have a very difficult time getting good colored armor deeds using smiths that don't have high blacksmithing skill. However, grandmaster smiths still have just as good a chance to get rewards as they did before publish 15.

4. You still get fame for doing BODs (the better the BOD, the more fame you get), but the fame messages (ie: "you gained a good amount of fame") managed to break when published. The fame messages will return in an upcoming publish. =[

5. We'll continue to monitor the system very closely, and refine it as needed. Keep in mind that the system intentionally makes it very very difficult to get the really good BODs, since it's critical for us to err on the side of caution (we'd much rather it be too hard at first then too easy). If it proves too difficult to get medium to high-end rewards, we'll definitely consider making it easier once we're confident that the system is behaving as designed, predictably, and without significant loopholes. =]

----------------------------------------
Tom "Evocare" Chilton
Lead Designer - Ultima Online

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Dugal McLoed and SUV will be hosting a Blacksmithing Contest January 19th, 2002 at 6:30 PST. The location is Thornshire tower 86*18" N, 47*57" E, Trammel facet of Napa Valley. There will be gates provided from the Brit smith shop (near cemetery) from 6:10 to 6:25 PM or you may Contact Balron via E-Mail or ICQ 144194921 to get a rune.

You will be tasked to make approximately 25-30 weapon items, with the items determined randomly during the contest and the number determined by roll of the dice. We will do the pricing one item at a time so 500 ingots should be more than enough. Your items will be placed on a vendor to determine the VDP, and the highest combined total VDP will be the winner.

There is a 2000 gold entry fee, with 10000 being thrown in the pot to start it. Prizes: 9 or less entries: 60% to first place, 40% to second place. 10+ entries will be 50/30/20% payouts. Payout examples: 9 entries = 28K gold, paying out 16800/11200...16 entries = 42K gold, paying out 21K/12600/8400.

This is a public event.

Good fortune to all who participate
Your humble servant,
Raeven Aurora

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Lydia Bright: I have heard that you possess an ancient smith's hammer.

Lord Lester: Aye, but I have placed it at Impy's Auction so that I may build up a little gold for a miner friend of mine.

Lydia Bright: And how did this hammer come into your possession?

Lord Lester: The Grand master of the Blacksmith's guild in Delucia gave it to me as a reward for completing a large bulk order deed for 15 sets of agapite chain mail for her.

Lydia Bright: Would you care to tell me what properties this hammer possesses?

Lord Lester: It seems to guide my hand to strike truer blows to the metal, making the harder armor easy to make.

Lydia Bright: Lucky you became a blacksmith! May I ask why you became a blacksmith in the first place?

Lord Lester: I became a blacksmith, at first, because it was needed to make anvils and forges. As I became better in the skill, though, I found that there were more uses for blacksmithy then I thought possible.

Lydia Bright: Ahhh, I see. Anything you would like to say to your fellow blacksmiths out there?

Lord Lester: Aye, there is. Don't give up hope, more of these hammers might surface around the world. Oh, one last thing?

Lydia Bright: What's that?

Lord Lester: Another reason I am selling the hammer is to help spread the word and works of the Great Pumpkin!

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From the Chronicles of Elder Raticker:

The council room was full in the town of Ocllo. The people were in an uproar over the resent events here and in Serpent's Hold. Many of the citizenry are dead or missing and they wanted answers! The mayor from each town decided to have a meeting to explain their intentions and what was being done to combat the recent slayings.

"Everyone please! The only news we have from Moonglow is that the Academy is working on a solution to this so called 'Circle'. The deaths in our towns are a direct result of their evil. The Scholars and Mages of our land have requested anyone to report the names of these aliens to Moonglow authorities immediately. They believe a name will aid them in being able to combat them." stated the mayor.

While the leadership of the towns tried to organize battleplans, the guilds attempted to find some way of distrupting the green shimmering globe which seems to make The Circle invulnerable.

"Eowen, have you ever seen anything like it?" asked White Lotus.

"No, the globe has properties which are not of this world. But I do believe there must be a way to destroy it. We must keep looking and searching for answers." replied Eowen.

"Yes, it truly seems the only way to defeat the invaders is to unite - but that may be harder than finding a way to penetrate the globe!

As the two guild leaders continued scrying for answers, another murder took place in the forests of Moonglow. The population of Sosaria was being reduced one by one and nothing of this world seemed able to stop it. Meanwhile, in a dark cavern deep within the bowels of Sosaria, Raticker again met with the alien invader...

"Slave, you must complete the circle now. Use your amulet to take three members at once. Move to the designated location of my entrance and begin the spell."

"Yes, Master." replied Raticker.

"The spell will take about 72 hours to complete so you must have taken over your vessel completely by then. Destroy the mind of this Raticker if you have to but nothing must interupt your spell once it has begun." demanded the Ancient One.

"Yes, Master." replied Raticker.

With his new orders, Raticker returned to his chambers and began making preparations.

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The City of Britain and Council of Compassion are excited to introduce the Auctions of Britain! These live in-game auctions are sure to provide fun entertainment as well as promote trade and interaction. We'll provide the auctioneers, time, and place - you bring your goods to sell or your pocketbook to bid! Don't miss out on that good deal or that new customer! The first auction takes place at Britains Conservatory of Music (Trammel) Friday, January 11, 2002.

We encourage sellers to pre-register their goods at our website anytime until the day of the auction, so that we can advertise the great items. We will take registrants at the Conservatory from 6:30 to 7:00 CST Friday evening before the auction begins. Please visit Auctions of Britain for details.

The auctions begin at 7:30 CST with Craftables in the East wing. There will also be a simultaneous Newbie Gear auction in the West wing of the Conservatory that begins at 7:30 CST. The Newbie Gear auction is aimed at newer players so please indicate whether or not you wish to sell in the Newbie Gear auction when you register your item. Thanks and we look forward to seeing you there!


Lekka Esdere,
City of Britain
Council of Compassion

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Below shows the change in appearance now, using Hiding:

BEFORE

AFTER

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As much as we'd like to tie everything up fictionally with the old king there's only so much we can do. Don't expect a grand exit for LB. Too many real world issues are present.

As far as this goes we're trying to look ahead rather than behind. Britannia has been without a leader for a long time, we recognize that, and we're hoping the new scenario fiction will be the beginning of the cure.

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We’re upgrading some of our server hardware for the East Coast and Central shards next week, January 7th through January 10th, which will require some additional downtime to complete. The maintenance will occur during the shards’ regularly scheduled maintenance windows.

We are anticipating the following schedule:

Monday, January 7th – Catskills
Tuesday, January 8th - Chesapeake and Atlantic
Wednesday, January 9th – Great Lakes and Lake Superior
Thursday, January 10th – Siege Perilous and AOL Legends

These shards are expected to remain down for approximately 3-4 hours beyond their normal maintenance periods on the date they are scheduled to receive the upgrades. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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Stratics does not directly control the content of the advertising we're currently running because the ads are managed through a third party. We do not currently have the ability to screen all advertisements before they appear on our pages. We are working on a means to manage all such ads in the future, but at the present time, we can only react, right along with the rest of our viewers, when such offensive advertising appears on our pages.

We have repeatedly asked for such ads to be screened from our rotation but our advertising host has not been fully attentive to these requests. They do tend to act quickly when we approach them about particular ads and the current ad that has so many people in an uproar is being removed.

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As sweet flowers bloom and church bells ring, another couple walks down the aisle tonight. Oshio sent us this information:

Hail Grand Mystic! *Rings wedding bells*

A wedding is to be held tonight! The marriage of Lord Demitrius and Lady Akara is to commence in the throne room of Castle Brittania at midnight EST. Following the vows and ceremony (Led by Pastor Cyn), there will be a reception with cake and ale. Anyone and everyone is invited, though there are a few rules. Please, no tamed pets unless they are mounts, no equipped weapons (they intimidate the guards that will also be in attendance), and most importantly, no fighting! All Chaos, Order, and warring guild members are advised to come on a passive character. Thank you and I will hope to see you there!

On another note, Oshio will be taking photographs of the wedding. If you would like a few, Oshio can be reached by pigeon at [email protected], or by clicking the link here. I wish the best luck to both of you, and everyone at Stratics wishes you a happy and merry life together. Safe travels, and have a merry day!

The Great Lakes News Team is interested in hearing from players that have been doing battle in Ilshenar and earning the "Hero" and "Evil" titles.

We want to hear from you and ask that you provide us with any information that you can about earning the "Hero/Evil" titles and send in proof (A screen shot of your paperdoll with the "Hero/Evil" title.) of your title for inclusion in the future article that will be written once all information is gathered.

What we know so far about the "Hero/Evil" titles is posted on the main stratics site HERE.

So if your interested in seeing your name and picture in the news. Please send a message to Methos Meridius or [email protected] with "Hero/Evil Titles" as the subject line.

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70th Assembly of the 6th High Council

Date: Monday January 7th, 2002
Time: 10:00 PM EDT/9:00 PM CDT
Location: Magincia Parliament Buildings, Trammel Facet.

Meeting Agenda:

• Announcement on Behalf of the Council of Honor by Lord Galahad regarding Councillor Positions.
• Announcement regarding an upcoming auction in Britain by Lord Benito Gundar.
• Announcement regarding MageFest by Lord Buzz Aldridge.
• Announcement regarding the organization of Sacrifice and the Council of Sacrifice by Lord Singlarad Arlista.
• Announcement by Chancellor Sten Hunter.
• Other items to be announced at the meeting.

The High Council of Britannia

Thank you,
Lady Geneveve Orseau
High Council Archivist

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Although condemned player-houses are now being allowed to decay, we are not turning off auto-refreshing for any other player houses at this time.

As stated at the end of last year, we are investigating options which will allow player housing to move forward to a healthier, more satisfying situation of a permanent nature. At this time, however, nothing has changed with the housing situation beyond allowing condemned houses to decay.

We will try to keep players updated on each phase of the upcoming housing changes, with as much notice as possible before each change is implemented.

=========
Sannio
Online Community Coordinator, UO
Origin Systems

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Yes, we are. :)

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

Cynthe added:

If you check this month's CGW [Computer Gaming World], you'll find that we've expanded our marketing a bit. :)

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He had been both a plaque and a source of rare amusement to her father's family for generations out of memory. He was worse than any dragon for collecting that which sparkles or glows - gems, gold, jewelry of all shapes and sizes, affectionately called his "sparklies" - though where he kept his hoard, if indeed he had one has remained a mystery. She was sure she'd escaped his attention in the City, which she herself had built. But it was not to be. She had the box not more than a minute... clear gold and crystal-studded clasps. What was inside, she did not know. She had not even had the time to open it after receiving it in gratitude from the assembled citizens of Stormhaven. But now it was gone. Disappeared from its honored place atop the fishtank.

She thought she caught a glimpse of orange-blond curls disappearing into the thin air of the castle cat-walk, but only that familar laughter and a jingling of bells lingered on the breeze. She remembered those sounds well from her childhood. So, indeed, Tribble was once again here to confound her. Oh, true enough, he'd given her a blessing for her "offering", but the gold box was no trifle to be given away thusly. She knew he'd appear again very soon to taunt her with his prize though, for this had always been his way. The only questions were where and when, and indeed where he was hiding his sparkling treasures, though even here she had her suspicions based on her memories of him.

After quieting the concerns of the City's Citizens, Baroness Lady Elsa sent forth messages to every corner of the land. Should Tribble be spotted anywhere in the far stretching lands of Britannia - the first person to arrive in Stormhaven with this news and any clue as to where Tribble might be hiding his precious hoard, culled from the rhymes he so enjoys spouting, would receive their due rewards.

Tribble, Tribble - whatever are we going to do with you?!
*******************************************************************

The Event called "The Quest of Tribble" will run through January 7 - January 12. Tribble will be appearing randomly in several locations throughout the lands of Sosaria. He will appear in a different location daily during the week of the Quest. Tribble will be granting blessings to those who give him the "Sparklies" his heart so desires. Along with these blessings, he will give riddling clues to where his treasure lies. (The "treasure" need not be found, it is simply the name of the location we need by decoding his riddling clues.) The first person to arrive in the City of Stormhaven, and seek out the Lady Elsa with the location of where Tribble was spotted, and the correct reciting of the riddling clue for that day, will receive the day's 25,000gp prize.

The first person who can guess the location of Tribble's treasure hoard, based on the five clues recited during the Quest week will receive the Grand Prize of 250,000gp, a Dull Copper Runic Weapon of their choice, and a complete set of the new Glass Blown Bottles.

After someone accurately reveals the location that Tribble was spotted and recites his riddle correctly, the clue will be posted on the News and Quest pages of Stormhaven's website: http://stormhaven.homestead.com/. The Lady Elsa will be the sole judge as to the accuracy of any guesses regarding the correct location based on the interpretation of Tribble's riddling clues. You MUST come to Stormhaven to give your answer, no answers through e-mail or ICQ will be accepted, nor will the Lady Elsa accept any answers given to her outside of Stormhaven.

The City of Stormhaven is located at the Britain/Vesper crossroads between the swamp north of Britain and the Compassion Desert. (63o 1'N, 54o 8'E).

Tribble may appear anywhere in Trammel - a dungeon, a town, a graveyard - anywhere! So keep your eyes open and listen carefully to his riddles, you just may walk away with a "Sparklie" yourself.

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Actually, the way the figure is set up, it looks like he is hovering. The base of the figure is actually his cape, and his body is lifted off the ground. It's a really creative effect when you see the figure on a desk.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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The comic in the box is the full comic and is the only one we are currently planning.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Some terrific stories are up for voting at FanStory.com. Don't miss them and help determine which author will start off the year as the winner of Story of the Month.

The Nominees:

The Payoff by Mecha0
Who can you really trust?

Virtually Real by Coyote Toledo - Asheron's Call
In this comedy Mosswarts are in the parking lot as the fantasy world finds earth.

Nepal by Braxus - Anarchy Online
Something is found in Chapter 5 of this novel.

And a Child Shall Lead Them by Lightwise
A young boy discovers an amazing talent

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Lydia Bright: Please, tell me a little of your race.

Titaneous Almone: I am a vampire, a Seraphyn to be exact. Many seem to like to call us blood suckers because that is what we feed off of..blood.

Lydia Bright: If I may be so bold, why did you become a vampire?

Titaneous Almone: Ahhh, it was for love. She asked me to come with her and having nothing to lose, I followed where she led.

Lydia Bright: Love can make people do strange things... May I ask your opinion of the current state of Sosaria?

Titaneous Almone: To tell you the truth, I think the world and it's people are quite funny in a sad kind of way. Some are stronger, some are smarter, but we're all basically the same. Still, even those who know that, they still fight with one another over their differences. It saddens me to see the people of Sosaria fighting over such a little thing as careers, lifestyles...even race.

Lydia Bright: Aye, I can see what you mean. Anything to say in closing?

Titaneous Almone: Yes. I'd like to say that I am not "evil", nor is every vampire around. We are just like everyone else. We have to eat to survive. I would also like to say that I do not believe there is such a thing as good or evil. It is all in how a person reacts to another person.

Lydia Bright: I thank you for your time, Titan, until we meet again.

Titaneous Almone: Until then.

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There is in fact a free Blackthorn action figure in every UO:LBR box to go along with the comic, map, and game (obviously). However, it is always a Blackthorn action figure (not random) for a number of reasons.

For instance, if you use the incentive of a random action figure where you can't see what figure you'll get when you open the box, it doesn't create as much of a purchase incentive to people that aren't already convinced they want the game (since they can't see what the action figure looks like and say "oh wow cool, I want that!").

Conversely, if you sell the game with a range of different action figures that they can see (through the "window" in the box), there are always a few of the figures that sell a lot, and all the rest get left on the shelves since people only want the boxes that are packaged with the "cool" action figures, and not the "lame" ones (there are inevitably going to be figures that are more and less popular).

Seeing as though we're selling UO primarily, where the action figure happens to be a cool bonus that adds value to the game purchase (29.99 is a smokin' deal for a game, action figure, comic, map, etc), we don't want to structure the product in such a way that makes it look like we're selling an action figure that happens to come with a game. ;]

--------------------------------------------
Tom "Evocare" Chilton
Lead Designer - Ultima Online

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Here's the update that I have. I spoke to a couple of the designers and they confirmed that because of coding issues the nightmare changes were left out of Publish 15. That is not to say that they are never being made; all that is going to happen is that the upgrade will be appearing in an upcoming update. My sincerest apologies for the delay--it just goes to show that I should never announce definite publish appearances for these changes, just in case unpredictable things happen. :(

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There is indeed an action figure in the box, although it's a bit smaller-sized than the standard action figure (it wouldn't fit in the box otherwise!)... and the comic is there too. :)

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GameSpy: The mechanical look of your characters are quite a contrast from the game's setting. How did you come up with these characters and do you think they are going to feel right in the UO world?

Todd McFarlane: As a toy maker I look for two things: what would be interesting to the people that would normally be interested in the subject matter (UO), and then the other part is to try and design stuff that will make people that have never heard of Ultima Online say, "God that's pretty cool looking!" You want to be able to get the casual buyer too, you don't want to limit yourself to just the person that is a fan of the thing, especially with fantasy. You know, Clive Barker came out with this Tortured Soul line and we just tried to make the coolest looking stuff as possible. You don't have to be a Clive Barker fan to like the toys that Clive and I created.

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The place is a villa located on a forest road, near the archway connecting Buc's Den to the mainland. This villa is called Ssellous Manor, and has been the home of a Black Guard named Willow Steele for many years. But the Black Guards are gone, and Willow Steele now rides with the Saurien Gathering, led by Grog, a rogue once loyal to B^G.

The rogue now calls himself the Prince of Bucaneer's Den. Willow Steele has been dubbed the Duke of Bucaneer's Den. Neither title is taken very seriously. In fact, Grog himself does not take the title seriously, laughing when people address him as such.

Grog sits on the stairs in the villa, acting more like a peasant than a prince. He presides over a small gathering of murderers, thugs and rogues who gather in a half circle in front of him.

In between Grog and his minions is a woman. Pink hair, a fair complexion and well made leather armor set her apart from the generally dark and gruesome men who surround her. The few women in the group are no less grousome.

"You have it, then, Ariel?" Grog leans forward, expectantly.

Ariel throws back her cloak revealing a midnight black katana at her waist. "Of course. Have you ever known me to fail?" The woman draws the sword.

All at once a motley assortment of swords, clubs, spears, axes and even one bow are pointed at her from behind. Grog waves the men back and they reluctantly sheathe their weapons.

Ariel smirks and advances on the rogue. Two paces apart from him she kneels in front him and holds the sword out in two hands, offering it to him.

Grog gracefully lifts the sword and inspects it closely. "Looks like someone tried to copy the WarLord's sword. They failed miserably. This weapon, though, it's formidable still. Quite a prize. And to think the Guardians simply gave it to me. Taking things is so much easier when you don't have to actually steal it."

Grog slips the sword into his own belt, and draws a dagger. He crouches in front of Ariel, who is still kneeling, eyes cast down, and places the blade of the dagger against her right cheek. He draws it the weapon slowly towards himself. Crimson blood wells up and drips down the woman's face.

"So you are sworn to my service, Ariel. Never forget who has the power of life and death here." The dagger vanishes and the black sword is in Grog's hands again.

"This is but one sword of several! Where are the others? Why are they not in my hands now? Find them! Kill whoever holds them! Bring them to me, now!" The villains scatter, scrambling to obey their master.

Ariel turns to leave, but is stopped by Grog. "You've done me a great service today." The rogue smiles. "You may carry this sword as you have before. I see no reason to doubt your ability to protect it."

She wordlessly accepts the blade, and it vanishes beneath her cloak. "Now," the rogue pauses, "find me another."

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Situation in Moonglow

As we all know from recent events, Janus Black and his Syndicate have overpowered Moonglow’s defenses, and have occupied the city. They have hostages, including a member of the Council of Honesty. Such aggression needs to be answered with action.

Lord Singlarad has gathered his troops; Galahad has called on Trinsic’s Paladins, a division of the Royal Guard, and they are already en route. We have sent word to Lord Kendrick, commander of the Royal Guard, to prepare the rest of his troops and dispatch them to Moonglow to help with the effort to hunt down and capture Janus Black and the Syndicate, so that they can be brought to justice.

We will support, any and all efforts to save Moonglow, so that the city can return to the peaceful life we’ve all learned to cherish.

The High Council of Britannia

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First Saturday Swap Meet!!
What? The First Saturday Swap Meet!!!
When? Saturday, Jan. 5th. 12 pm Central (until whenever)
Where? Shining Path Armoury, Trinsic (Trammel)

This is going to be the first gathering of the First Saturday Swap Meet!!

What is the Swap Meet, you ask?

Basically a place for all players to go and buy/sell/trade items. Can't find that bulk order deed that has been eluding you? Go to the Swap Meet!! Need some valorite ingots? Go to the Swap Meet!!! Want to tell folks about your vendor shop and pass out runes to it? Go to the Swap Meet!!!

A GM Blacksmith will be on hand to give our free repairs and will make
repair deeds for those that bring him scrolls. So pack your bags, brings some checks, and come on out!!!

[This spot in Trinsic was chosen because of its large area with a forge and its close proximity to the bank.]


Lord Eric the Red
8th Seat, High Council
ICQ=7945837

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url: The Drunken Sailors Site
Facet: Felucca
Date: Saturday, January 19, at 9:00pm EST
Location: The Pirate's Cove [Ar!] Crew Tower
Coordinates: 20° 12'N 27° 8'E (map provided on site)

Event: The Legend of Sharky's Treasure

The Drunken Sailors guild [Ar!] has discovered the secret of Sharky's Treasure! We are hoarding the treasure in our tower!

We are challenging all comers to STORM OUR TOWER, KILL US, AND LOOT US DRY. Should anyone successfully break through our defenses, there will be UNTOLD RICHES to the person who successfully nabs our Treasure Chest!

All pirates will be friended to the tower, so any potential tresspassers will be GREY. In addition, [Ar!] will be accepting any guild wars from the time of the public announcement of this event. We will also have an anti-[Ar!] "Landlubbers" guildstone set
conveniently nearby for those who are not in a guild warring us. Charge of this guildstone will be given to someone who is not in [Ar!] so new recruits can be added (and jerks dismissed) during the battle.

Disclaimer:
Anyone who refuses to war [Ar!] or join the Landlubber guild may still participate in the siege. However, you do so at your own risk. You have our word that no [Ar!] will give murder counts, but accidents happen. War us!!

Prize: RICHES UNTOLD!!!

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We wish to welcome all the Smiths of Sosaria to the BOD Swap Meet! Bring your BODs to trade with other smiths to finish off your collection!

The BOD Swamp Meet will be held this Saturday at 8 Eastern, 7 Central at the Blacksmith's Guild in Western Britain, Trammel.

We hope to make this a weekly event, so..the more the merrier!

Daniel Flagg

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Greetings To All From Rivendell,

We would like to thank everyone who has supported the town throughout the Tournament of Champions which began on August 30th - the many contestants, spectators, citizens, and friends of the community. As a result, ten great competitions have taken place along with the opportunity to meet and welcome many new visitors to the town. Special thanks to Lord Bounty for his dual role in organization and Master of Ceremonies. Thanks also to Green Goblin for his weekly support and advertising. And thanks to Dravec for his generous contributions of time filling in to referee and donations to the treasury. We hope everyone has enjoyed the tournament as much as we have enjoyed hosting it.

And now … the much awaited final event is drawing near. The victors of each weekly tournament will face off against each other for the title of Grand Champion in this Lake Superior contest. The grand finale will be held Saturday, January 5th at 7pm CST in the Rivendell arena. The ultimate victor will be recognized in Rivendell's Hall of Fame, and awarded an unprecedented prize in all Riv tournaments of ONE MILLION GP! The previous winners and final contestants are as follows:

MOTHER THERESA
LOKIE
MECHANISM(forfeit, no longer available)
BRAD PITT
LAZER
MAD DOG
GERYON
DARAGON
JOE
WOLFFEN

Congratulations and Best of Luck To All of You!!

PLEASE NOTE: There will be no regular registration or entry fee, but all contestants are asked to check-in at the tavern and arrive no later than 6:45 so that competition can begin promptly at 7pm.


The same rules which applied throughout the tournament will be used for the final competition:

No pets
No para
No magic items - please check everything carefully - if you are seen wearing any magic items you will be disqualified
No field, area, or summon spells
No stealing
No looting
No DP-up to GP allowed if the fighter poisons during the match
Potions are allowed if warrior in the fight
No pots allowed if two mages are competing
No mana drain
No hiding/invising
No pre-casting or pre-drinking
No pre-equipping of weapons
No leaving the arena after the events begin. Bring enough supplies as you enter the arena.

As always, in fairness to all competitors, violation of any rule can lead to immediate disqualification at the judge's discretion. Any unforeseen situations outside of the above rules will be decided at the judge's discretion - his decisions are final. As this is a special one-time event to determine the champion among ALL previous winners, any contestant who does not participate forfeits the opportunity to compete for the grand prize.

We invite all in the land to join us and enjoy a very special evening in Rivendell. Come out to support your friends in the competition, cheer for your favorite, or just enjoy the art of great PvP! An awards ceremony will be held immediately following the tournament, and all are welcome to join us in the tavern afterwards.

Anyone requiring assistance to reach Rivendell can find our location at Rivendell, or post a note at: Rivendell board - we'll be happy to help. We look forward to an exciting competition, greeting old friends, and meeting new ones.

Regards,

Rivendell Town Council

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LBR won't go gold until well after the fan event. It's on schedule to begin shipping on February 12th.

The fan event CD is already in duplication.

and…

Well, the fan event CD will definitely be pre-release code, so the usual disclaimers will apply. : )

It [fan event cd] will initially only be able to function on a test server. The exact date that server will go live hasn't been determined.

February 12th is the US ship date. February 21st is for Japan. The rest of the shipments will hopefully go out by the end of February.

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Heheheh... Hey! Give me a few days to get caught up?! :P Seriously, as far as I knew the pures were coming out in this publish. I honestly don't know what is going on with it (yet) and I will be sending off an inquiry or two asap. As soon as I know more I will let you know what I know that I can let you know. :)

We’ll keep you informed as soon as we know what’s going on.

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Interested in a behind-the-scenes look at Ultima Online’s upcoming expansion, Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge? If so, take a peek into the minds of the Designers involved in its development as they discuss the details of its conception and construction in a collection of Designer Diaries that are being published on various popular gaming websites. Two of these diaries, written by Designer Calandryll, have already been released and can be found via the following links:

- Calandryll discusses the expansion and how it relates to UO’s ongoing fiction in this Gamespy article.

- Insight into the UO:LBR comic, as well as its heroine, “Dawn”, can be found here, at MGON.

Future diaries will be posted on both of these sites in the coming weeks, and we will update again once they are released!

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... Currently (in Publish 15), runebooks are still creatable with a maximum of 8 charges. However, the next scheduled publish (Publish 16) is set to raise this maximum to 10 charges. (I don't have a time estimate yet as to when this next publish will occur.)

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Hail! I would like to announce that the RKB's Order of Clergy will be hosting an 8 week Tour of the Virtues.
Every Monday night from January 14 to March 4, the Order of Clergy will be leading an event dealing with an individual virtue.
All events will begin at RKB Newcastle at 8pm EST. If anyone needs a rune please contact myself, Ludwig Van Foltz, at pigeon 27176393.
Everyone is welcome to attend. For additional info and map of Newcastle,
please visit Newcastle Thank you all and hope to see you there!

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Not next week. Would be a really, really bad idea to start the scenario the week before the UO World Faire. Most of us are going to be out of the office at the Faire starting on Thursday (set up at night) and through Saturday.

The scenario is looking good right now though and we have very few bugs. Those are being fixed as I write this. :)

We're going to have to do some merges (with publish 15 for instance) and that will add some testing time unfortunately. I'm reluctant to give out an ETA today, but the goal is to kick it off sometime this month after the Faire.

Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
Designer, Ongoing Content
a wizard did it

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Hail Britannians! The Mage Tower cordially invites you to test your mettle (or watch others' metal being tested :) against some of the finest foes in the land.

• Event: Baja Mage Tower's PvP Tourney
• Time: Sunday, January 6th, 7pm PST
• Location: The Mage Tower | Baja
• Competition: Simple Elimination
• Rules: No pets or summoned creatures, no looting of fallen contestants, standard Mage Tower policies apply to non-contestants.
• Purse: 100,000 gold
• 2nd Place Prize: Full set of Alchemical Glassware

Please plan on attending The Mage Tower's PvP Tourney. This event has always been a lot of fun for both contestants and observers; audience members are welcome!

The Tourney will be held in the rooftop arena at the Tower. Contestants will flag on the designated Mage Tower staff member. Battles are to the death; no looting of fallen contestants is permitted. Anything goes (ie: magical armor/weapons/poison/potions/healing/etc.) WITH THE EXCEPTION that no pets or summoned creatures are allowed. Contestants will be logged in and assigned fighting order based upon arrival time (ie: Mage Tower staff will do their best to be organized and your patience/tolerance/fortitude will be greatly appreciated). Winners will be determined (and receive their prizes)at the end of the contests and winners' pictures will be posted to Stratics and (of course) to the Tower Web site.

Normal Mage Tower rules (no killing, no looting, no stealing) will be strictly enforced: non-consensual actions won't be tolerated and (as always) are considered grounds for instant banning (and of course, disqualification from the Tourney).

PLEASE stable agressive mounts/pets BEFORE coming to the Tower. Reds visit/live/work at the tower occasionally and are (as always) welcome there -- and are also welcome to participate in the tourney. Pets and reds don't play well together :)

PLEASE share this announcement with your friends!

PLEASE plan on attending -- we'll look forward to seeing you at the Tower!

For a map of the area, see the site, http://baja.mage-tower.com/images/mt_location.jpg and for the main Web site of the Mage Tower see http://baja.mage-tower.com/

Respectfully Submitted,
Iseult, The Mage Tower | Baja

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Housing and Lockdown Updates

*Selecting YES on the gump to clear you as a co-owner of a house will now remove your co-owner status, allowing proper house transfers.
*Fixed an issue concerning flawed tile art while placing a house.
*Trading a house to a player who is co-owned to a house will be a two-step process. The receiver will first have to select YES to remove his co-owner status and then the other party will need to initiate the trade again, at which time it will complete normally.
*The house co-owner clear confirm gump spacing has been fixed.
*An issue allowing house add-ons to be chopped through an exploit has been fixed.
*Locked-down eggs and Easter eggs are no longer able to be used.
*You will now be able to use runebooks within bookcases or locked down containers.
*Co-owners of player houses are now able to dye locked-down furniture within the house they co-own.
*Issues involving certain characters being unable to release, secure, or lock-down items within their own houses has been addressed.
*The text on the house sign gump when using the 3D client has been changed to black text, instead of yellow, for easier reading.
*All houses will continue to be automatically refreshed — except condemned houses. Condemned houses will begin to decay.

Guild System Updates

*An issue involving canceling choosing new fealty in the guild menu has been addressed.
*Guildmasters that resign from their guild using the statement “I resign from my guild” will now receive a resignation confirmation. Also, the player who becomes guildmaster, as well as all online guild members, will now receive a statement announcing the new guildmaster.
*Several spelling errors in guild messaging have been fixed.
*A typo in the declare war function on guildstones has been corrected.

Map-Specific Updates

*Liches now spawn properly at (757, 1400, 0).
*Numerous bad ocean tiles have been cleaned up.
*NPC Waiters will no longer spawn on the roof of the Great Horns Tavern in Magincia.
*When you single-click the teleporter in the Moonglow mage shop for a newbie quest you will now see “a magical teleporter” instead of “lookAtText: a magical teleporter.”
*Players will be able to insta-log from the first floor of the Sweet Dreams Inn in Britain while using the 3D client.

NPC and Shopkeepers Updates

*All methods of killing shopkeepers in Felucca will now give a murder count (ie using pets, provoking).
*The vendor info and status is now on a gump instead of a bark.
Shopkeepers will now buy up to 250 individual items or up to 500 items total, whichever comes first.
*The barkeeps now work through context menus.
*An issue involving the displaying of the barkeep tip message on the barkeep menu has been fixed.
*‘Buy’ is now part of context menus on faction horse breeders and hairstylists.
*The cancel button on the hairstylist gump will now cancel the selection and not charge you 50k.
*Guards no longer have training menus.
*Real estate brokers will be the only NPC interested in house deeds — all others will return them to the person who owns it.
*NPC Bankers and NPC Minters are the only NPCs which will accept checks.

Pet and Hireling Updates

*A loophole allowing transferring of pets while flagged grey has been fixed.
*It will no longer be possible to stable a pet using the last object macro.
*Fixed the message when you try to stable an object in your backpack — it now says “you can’t stable that” instead of “please dismount first.”
*Animal lore now correctly reports how many owners an animal has had.
*The message involving feathers in animal lore has been corrected.
*If you used your animal lore skill on a tamed eagle, eventually you’d get a random bark saying: “you lock it.” You should no longer be receiving that erroneous message.
*Healing a frost spider will now raise vet skill instead of anatomy.
*You will no longer be able to tame dynamically spawned monsters — such as Unicorns in an evil in the can region. You will still be able to tame the normally spawned Unicorns.
*You will no longer have to pay upkeep to keep your pet refreshed while stabled.
*Non faction players will no longer be able to tame faction war horses.
*Pack animals are now tamable via context menus.
*Players that command their pets using context menus will appear as if they had spoken the command phrase(s).
*All pets store bought or tamed and released will now properly be re-tamable.
*It’s no longer possible to transfer a pet to a ghost.
*Players who mount an ethereal horse will no longer be spammed three times with “You get on your horse.”
*An issue causing pets & hirelings to visually disappear (although only visually — they actually remained in the game at the place last seen) when approaching a server boundary has been addressed.
*You will no longer be able to hire NPC hirelings and have them guard other NPCs.
*An issue involving hirelings performing “grey” activities without their “owner” going grey has been fixed.

kill Changes and Updates

*An issue disallowing the use of leather which was cut up from leather items has been addressed.
*The text displayed when selecting the type of metal on the crafting gump will no longer be garbled.
*When crafting items a check of the backpack is made — if it’s full (either item or weight-wise), you will not be able to craft the item.
*Both the crafting tools and the crafting resources must now be in one's backpack when crafting a given item. (You will no longer be able to use crafting tools in the bank box.)
*Crafting now breaks the necessary concentration for meditation.
*All crafting menus have the make last button.
*Oilcloths will now be created with the correct variables, and the bug to convert them back into yellow pieces of cloth has been fixed.
*Female plate is now properly identified on the crafting gump.
*Your backpack no longer closes if you use the materials menu.
*Tinkers will no longer be able to make bugged lanterns. Graphics issue were preventing them from lighting correctly.
*The “I honor thee” command will no longer disrupt peacemaking.
*Maker's Mark for instruments should now go back to being based on your Carpentry skill instead of your Musicianship skill.
*The Carpentry menu now has the correct spelling for “Trinsic-style chair.”
*An issue with incorrect messages when using Anatomy on targets with low STR and DEX has been fixed.
*Players who successfully use their hiding skill while under the effects of an invisibility spell will no longer be revealed when the invisibility timer expires.
*Players will no longer lose mana when attempting to inscribe a scroll they don’t have the proper materials for.
*Fixed an issue where the Inscription menu remained “active” after clicking “OK,” disallowing further use of that skill for a time.
*Characters will no longer lose mana when they fail to make a scroll.
*Fixed an issue with the phrase that appears when a cooking tool breaks.
*You will now get the correct amount of dough from mixing flour and water.
*When starting a tailor character you will begin with a pair of scissors.
*The cap and tall straw hat are now included in the tailor items menu for tailors.
*You will now be able to make potions directly into a potion keg.
*Potion kegs will now display the correct contents when single-clicked (ex. the keg will say “a keg of greater poison” versus “a keg of green potions”).
*Blacksmith repair difficulty has been fixed — the more damaged a weapon is, the more difficult it will be to repair it.
*If you have a blacksmith tool equipped, you must use that tool while smithing. Otherwise, you can use the tools from your pack as normal.
*An issue involving mining at inappropriate distances from the target has been fixed.
*An issue involving the ability to smith items without the proper tools has been addressed.
*Gargoyle shopkeepers will now give and accept bulk orders.
*Added small platemail bulk order deeds.
*Male plate tunics are now being given as a Bulk Order Deed (whereas before it was only female plate armor).
*Blacksmith repair contracts will now work in the gargoyle city region.
*Resmelting metal items now checks for an anvil and forge in the proximity.
*It will now be possible to repair and resmelt all metal shields, arms, and armor.
*The word “Dull” has been changed to “Dull Copper” on the blacksmith menu.

Faction Updates

*Faction scrolls now stack properly.
*Faction shopkeepers and guards will now correctly be dismissible by a targeting cursor.
*Faction vendors should no longer block players movement.
*Faction stones will no longer open up the “join this faction” gump window for anyone who has already joined that faction.
*Several issues with faction voting windows have been fixed. They will now come up & display appropriately.
*A faction town income price modifier issue has been corrected.
*An issue involving faction town stones not always recognizing their faction ownership has been fixed.
*Factioneers who leave their faction while on the leadership candidate list will be properly removed from the respective candidate list at that time, and the election system timetable will be adjusted accordingly.
*Factioneers of rank 5 or lower will not be able to campaign for faction leadership.
*Faction titles will no longer display while in Trammel.
*An issue involving faction characters getting stuck if they quit their faction while in their stronghold has been fixed.
*An issue allowing characters to Gate Travel while holding a faction sigil has been fixed.

Spell Updates

*Fixed an issue where you’d get a message saying that you were disturbed while casting the Incognito spell, but you’d still be able to cast the spell if your skill was high enough.
*Fixed an issue where an avatar would turn north when casting certain spells.
*Telekinesis no longer works on boat decks.
*The Firefield spell will no longer be precastable outside of town and targetable in town.

Miscellaneous Localization/Text Changes

*An issue where certain containers were not displaying their weight properly has been fixed.
*The listed values when a character is overloaded were reversed-they now display as “Carrying stones/Max stones.”
*Legacy naval chests and shipwreck chests now display the correct text.
*Pitchers of liquid will no longer just say: “Container. It is full.” *Single-clicking the pitcher will now display the contents.
*Links will now show up and work correctly in the help gump.
*Special drinks will now correctly display their look at text — mostly covers holiday items.
*The mongbat tutorial text will no longer mysteriously disappear.
*An issue with overlapping text boxes in the new player tutorial has been fixed.
*The gump that pops up when you are leaving the tutorial to go to Haven will now remain on the screen until closed.
*The proper localized look at text will now appear over magic teleporters.
*When canceling a help request the word request is now spelled correctly.
*The wording when locking and unlocking a door has been made consistent.
*Kite shields will now display if they are dyeable or not.
*A text display issue with trapped chests has been corrected.
*Female plate is now correctly identified if it is exceptional.
*Text will now display correctly on magical items that are blessed using the Item Bless deed.

Miscellaneous

*Runebooks now only require 8 blank scrolls to make instead of the previous 10.
*Double-clicking a bank check in your bankbox will now cash it in.
*Camping now is on a 10 second timer — if a player camps and waits more than ten seconds, the gump will close and the player remains in the world. (This is to prevent insta-logging in combat.)
*You can now use a furniture dye tub if you are the owner and the tub is in your backpack.
*Recall scrolls will now stack properly.
*The woodsman house has been removed from the list of possible escort destinations because it was confusing — there aren’t any woodsman in the game.
*Players on Siege shards who aren’t part of the new good/evil system will no longer be able to hue items.
*Special case doors now play the correct sounds when opened and closed.
*Candles will no longer disappear when used in your hand.
*Ghosts will no longer be able to open their backpacks using context menus.
*The mongbat tutorial gump will no longer close when entering combat, as well the death gump will not vanish if the player leaves the area toward the exit moongate and comes back.
*If a character has his Karma locked it will no longer be possible for others to “honor” them.
*None of the decorative bolts of cloth in tailor shops will disappear or give odd messages when double-clicked.
*An issue regarding making & collecting bounties has been addressed.
*All magical items should now be able to be repaired as normal.
*If you choose a Vet Reward from the menu and then cancel your choice, you will be put directly into the game instead of being presented with the Vet Rewards menu again.
*An issue involving grey thieves being able to steal and use moongates has been fixed. (Such thieves must wait until they return to blue before using a moongate.)
*An issue involving incorrect altering of stats through the used of certain Blessed items and spell combinations has been fixed.
*Oil cloths should no longer disappear once you use them on your weapon.
*You are no longer able to get more than one stone table from one deed.

We are targeting to publish the “Publish 15 Updates and Bug Fixes” changes listed in Testing for Next Update to the Atlantic shard, to be active following its normal Thursday morning maintenance period. We will monitor the shard closely, and barring any unforseen issues, will announce a publish schedule for the remaining shards soon.

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Sastimos, Gaje and Rom alike! The time draws near at last to seek the Tome of Dark Waters. In it are many secrets, but one that we must find. It is the secret to the curse upon Clayn Ayr that all of us, when we die, shall not pass to our rest but remain forever muladi, inhabiting the bodies of the dead.

If you would know more of what we seek, follow the threads of the Dark Night quest on Chessienet on the Quests Forum. In the very first story is a way to read more of the gypsies.

The way will not be easy, and at 9:00 as measured by the Eastern star will we begin the final search by consulting the crystal and by reading the cards.

All the noble of the land who are members of the Arcana, who have been given a card by me in the last few weeks, please make every effort to be there. Our success may depend on you.

All others who wish to aid or visit are welcome to find me at the Siren's Call tavern at Kain's Place in Silvervale on that night. The map to there can be found at Silvervale if you have never been to this city.

May your path be between the stones, and may the light of tachiben follow you as you walk.

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During the next week, three books will be at Caer Lir in the roof top court house. One will be for the purpose of citizen registry. Any current regular citizens known will already be listed and you can request to have your name added. Remember, you must be a citizen to be on the council.

All citizens will vote for council members and you can see either Edgar or Lilith or me to have your name added to the list of candidates. If you wish to be considered for the council, you have to let us know. Once the council members are voted in, they will choose a mayor from amongst them.

The third book at Caer Lir will specify the duties of the mayor and of the council. To qualify as a citizen you must either live in the town and be around OR be a regular visitor there.

Duties will include planning and running events, meeting once a week for half an hour to discuss town issues, issuing arrest warrants, declaring someone "Non Persona" who is a problem or dealing with and/or discussing that problem. There are more, but this is the basic idea.

Let us work together to make Silvervale the best it can be.

An additional post for the council will be Events Coordinator, and others as needed and stipulated by the council. For more information, go to Silvervale and visit the messageboard there.

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The Fellowship of Gird is hosting a cat fight on Saturday, January 5th at 8 PM Eastern time! The event will be held at the Nujel'm checkerboard on the Trammel facet. There is a modest entry fee of 500 gp to help cover the cost of supplies and prizes.

Everyone grab a cat and train it to be the best fighting feline in Britannia! First prize is snowballs and everyone who participates will receive door prizes and a chance to win even more prizes! Visit The Fellowship of the Gird for further information.

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The New York Times article, “Expansion Sough for Online Games,” by Bob Tedeschi compares the market potential of online games to PC and console games. The article expresses skepticism that online fantasy games will have as large a market potential as predicted last year.

For those interested in customer numbers, the article contained this bit of information:

The Ultima Online game by Electronic Arts, the No. 2 paid online game, has just 235,000 active users, who each spend about $10 a month for the privilege of logging on. The most popular title is EverQuest by Sony, whose 400,000 users pay similar monthly fees.

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Mining is not connected to the bulk order deeds and their color selection (if you have sufficient skill to get a colored deed - 70 and up).

If you're below 70 skill, your skill does restrict the deed you get. The skill restriction is -10 to +10 around your current skill for items it chooses for you to make. This allows the deed to be focused for skill gains on your character.

IE at 49.9 skill (39.9 to 59.9 skill requirement items):
41.9 - Ringmail Sleeves
44.4 - Maul
44.4 - Ringmail Leggings
46.9 - Ringmail Tunic
49.3 - Cutlass
49.3 - Heater Shield
49.3 - Viking Sword
53.0 - Large Battle Axe
53.0 - Longsword
53.0 - War Mace
54.3 - Double Axe
55.5 - Battle Axe
56.7 - Bardiche
56.7 - Scimitar
58.0 - Two Handed Axe
59.2 - Axe
59.2 - Executioner's Axe
59.2 - Hammer Pick
59.2 - War Hammer

Chainmail Coif is too low (39.5) and Platemail pieces are too high (in the 80's and 90's).

We haven't made a decision on any other bulk order systems. The information we have logged from the current implementation is looking very promising and can be used, if we do add on to it. :)

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KingDavid of PAS (People's Army of Sonoma) is pleased to announce the first of (hopefully) many gold caravans for Sonoma.

PAS and possibly other allies will lead a group of pack horses from Trinsic (Felucca) to Vesper (Felucca) and then back. We will leave Trinsic as close to 8pm CDT as is possible. We will attempt to stay on the roads as often as possible, but we might have to deviate to save our packhorses from the many thieves, pks, and monsters that would prefer to see them dead.

Why is this of interest? Because the team of pack horses will be carrying 100k in gold. If the team makes it to Vesper and then back to Trinsic, any gold still on the pack horses (or on PAS if they have to grab it from the dead horses) will be banked and added to the next week's 100k gold caravan.

I hope to continue this weekly Caravan each Friday, as long as it provides some entertainment for people.

I am inviting any thieves, pks, or just greedy players to try to come and take the gold from the horses, or from their dead bodies, or from dead PAS bodies.

My orders to PAS will be for them to NOT give any murder counts during this gold caravan, but there's always a chance that they could lag and hand one out by accident.

So come at your own risk, and to make this a little more enjoyable, try attacking the PAS members from time to time, and not simply dropping the pack horses and running off with the gold. *grins*

If this is a worthwhile event, and fun for others, then I will continue until we have distributed 2 million gold (20 weeks of this).

So come and get some gold, if you feel up to the challenge.

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Hail & Well Met!

Janurary's Homes of the Exotic & Illustrious Tour is starting this New Year off with a BANG! So many fun new changes and additions; you won't want to miss it!

Ever wondered about those GM Blessed Homes in Felucca? Ever wonder how they got blessed or how old they are? Well wonder no more, take this months Tour and know! This months Homes of the Exotic & Illustrious Tour is made up of some of the most famous, most unique and most beautiful homes in the lands, the GM Blessed Homes of Felucca! Come see Kazola's Treetop Keg & Winery, RD's Store Front and Auction House, The Cove Merchants Guild, The Temple of Mondain and the Island of Tar Valon!

Tour Packs are available in...
~Trammel~
Garden City Mall (43o 35'N, 67o 46'E)
Fishermen Council of Britannia (72o 14'N, 56o 36'E)
S/C Lag Tower (49o 18'S, 23o 45'W)
WH Guild House (120o 56'N, 179o 14'W)
Last One (100o 59'N, 157o 18'W)
Homes Tour Tower (24o 25'S 9o 25'E)
Impy's Arctic Faire (88o 14'N 170o 27'W)
Yewtopia (72o 30'N 46o 24'W)

~Felucca~
Imperial Crafters Union (35o 56'N, 34o 56'W)
Macy's (33o 55'N, 140o 0o'W)
Sandalwood Box (77o 46'S, 33o 40'E)
Cove Merchants Guild (36o 28'N 67o 46'E)
RD's Store Front & Auction House (34o 43'N 45o 4'E)

Also, I have a wonderful announcement, there will be an extra rune in your pack this month because, the Homes of the Exotic & Illustrious Tour has finally opened a "home base" for the tour, The Homes Tour Tower! At the Homes Tour Tower you will find a place to submit your home for a future Tour line up, a runebook library of past Homes of the Exotic & Illustrious Tours, one eye-popping rare with a written history and fun facts, wonderful vendors selling runes to amazing guildhouses, shops and events and a monthly home decorations display, for those of you who need ideas for sprucing up your homes! I am in the process of finalizing the details for a Grand Opening Celebration for the Homes Tour Tower so watch for details!

Homes Tour Tower (25o 24'S 9o 25'E)
Directions to the NEW Homes Tour Tower


* Leave Britian via the South-Western most bridge, the Gung Farmer's Bridge
* Follow the coast due south until you come to the Britian Beach
* There you will find a small road that leads from the beach
* Walk out the road
* The Homes Tour Tower is the ONLY small tower on the South side of that road
* Come on in


See you around Brit!

Thanks,
Kyra, Tour Coordinator

P.S. A huge thank you to Deagan, Lady Nemonis, Kazola, Heather, Rattler & All of RD's Staff, All of Felucca Tar Valon, Mondain, Impy's Staff & AmberWitch!

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Happy New Year from ALL the Staff!!

This week here at Impy's we have a very exciting line up. Piles of rares and armor have been lined up.

Auctions this week on:
Wednesday, January 2nd at 9pm EST
Thursday, January 3rd at 9pm EST

Both nights the Mystery Chest has been donated by: Seadogs Saloons. Thank you for these GREAT Chest!!

Up this week:
Runic Hammers - Dull Copper, Copper, Shadow
Statues - both Animals and Christmas rewards
Black Dye Tub
Ranger Armor
Holiday and Aniversary Gifts - bags, coins, cards, roses, flutes
Beard Dye Bottle
Bronze Robe
Glacial Staffs
Pagan Regs - Wyrm's Heart, Pig Iron, Volcanic Ash, Obsidian, Serpents Scale, Pumice
Ship Model
Bucket of Water
Shards of Bone
Anvils - Bronze, Dull Copper, Verite, Valorite

As always, Runes to Riches and the Mystery Chest games will also be played this week following the auction, so please stick around and take a chance with lady luck. Impy has asked that you please stable your pets before the auction as he is allergic to wet fur.

If you don't have a rune, please stop by one of rune vendors: StarLite (Vesper, Trammel), next door to the RD Stables (Felucca), the Sandlewood Box Inn (Dead Heaven, Felucca), Kazola’s TreeTop Keg and Winery (Felucca), Cove Merchant’s Guild and Blacksmith Shoppe (Cove, Felucca), the Mystic Portal (Trammel), the Garden City Mall (Cove, Trammel), Kyra's Home Tour Base (Trammel).

~Impy's Staff
www.impys.net

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Hail dark friends,

I protect the Undead Lords that inhabit the dungeons and caves about Sosaria, and require all who enter these halls to don the most sacred of garments.

In my most recent adventure, I came upon a bard who was using his great beast to scour the dungeon Shame of it's bounty. But alas, this heathen failed to don the requisite garment and paid the ultimate price for this transgression.

If you wish to hunt the beasts of Wind and Shame, be sure to don the blood-drenched scarf, or thee shall meet thy doom in a flurry of metal and magic!

These are not some tales of fancy, but the true Adventures of Adam
Ant.

http://www.game-master.net/

--Adam Ant

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I HAD TO QUIT SCHOOL AND QUIT MY MAKE BELEIVE JOB TO CREAT THIS SUPER AWSOME COMIX!! IF ANYONE WANTS TO BUy IT FROM ME, MY PRICE IS ONE HAM SANDWHICH!!!!11

http://superguild.homestead.com/CrudleyDrawnXMAS.html

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NOOBIEDOOD asked me to do this latest update for him...

The Normal Guy is starting up with MWF updates again and can be found
here

The NOOBIEDOOD CHRISTMAS SPECIAL is up as he dresses up as Santa Claus and can be found here

Just a preview of what you'll see:


Also here's a small thing I'd like to say that me and NOOBIEDOOD are
working on...

We've created some merchandise with this design:


We've got shirts, mousepads, mugs, etc. On the front of the shirts is an American Flag with the Normal Guy web address underneath it. It's a great way to show your patriotism... but what's better is this is a great way to help give to a good cause.

Because of the September 11th attacks there has been an OUTPOUR of money being donated to funds helping those victims... however, many other charities not related to these funds are HURTING immensely and one charity I really like The Alzheimers Association will be receiving half the profits I receive from this merchandise. The other half will be going to getting me a dot com address AND NOOBIEDOOD a dot com address as well.

I bought one of the long sleeved shirts this week and it's really great. Lots of compliments from people I met asking me where I got it at. So it's a good way to show your patriotism and a good way to give money to a worthy cause which has been also affected indirectly by the Sept. 11th attacks....

http://www.cafepress.com/normalguy

J. R. Cook
==========================
The Normal Guy
http://normalguy.keenspace.com
College roommates, video games, beer. What more could you want in a cartoon?

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Demo announcement. There will be an initial demo of Ultima IV: The Dawn of Virtue released in early 2002. It is tentatively scheduled for release at the end of January. The demo will allow players to explore the town of Trinsic and nearby areas.

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Inferno

The explosion shook the fortress and hurled Dasha to the floor. The Jukan warriors around her toppled in a clatter of armor and spears. She regained her bearings and glanced about the room. The stone walls had cracked. The floor shifted. The fortress verged on collapse.

Master Adranath’s ritual had begun. The demise of the Juka and Meer was at hand, unless Dasha and Kabur acted quickly.

She rose to her knees and barked, “Exodus! Do something to give us time, sorcerer!” From her fingertips leapt a spell that illuminated the shadowy alcove, but the Juka’s mysterious lord was not there. He had left behind a curious altar or pedestal, studded with flickering gemstones and inset with silver, geometric patterns. She muttered, “Where is your revered master, Kabur, in the face of danger?”

The warlord growled, “The Juka do not hide behind wizards. We fight with our own hands!” Then he charged through a doorway. Dasha followed him. They emerged atop the high wall at the front of the massive fortress. From this vantage they saw the Jukan city spread around them, devastated by the earthquakes of the morning’s battle. Chaotic melee poured blood through the streets. And a new terror began to engulf the wide valley. Several dozen Meer elders formed a ring around the fortress, shining fiercely in the thick of a magic spell. The northern point of the circle was occupied by Master Adranath himself. At his gesture great rings of fire rippled out from the elders, blazing through the city in a brilliant conflagration. Dasha threw up an arm to block the heat from her face. The fortress rocked at the hammer impact of the flames, which sprayed and tossed like a hellish ocean wave. Then black smoke swallowed everything and Dasha pulled away from the edge.

Her heart slammed painfully. Exodus had been right. Adranath was conducting the slaughter of everyone in the valley, both Juka and Meer. The holocaust pounded the city in relentless surges. So terrible was the heat that her fur began to singe. She knew it was already too late to save the countless thousands trapped on the ground. Her head swam in despair. Ancestors, do not forsake us! We do not deserve this end!

From out of the smoke reached a powerful hand. It plucked her into the air and held her there. She saw Warlord Kabur’s green face, twisted with a terrible rage. “My people!” he screamed. “What have you done? By the Great Mother, you have killed us all!”

She saw Kabur’s face, the face of the man who had organized the destruction of the Meers’ home forest. He was a hapless pawn of Exodus, perhaps, but he was guilty nonetheless. His naivete had initiated this war. He owned responsibility as much as Adranath. Her horror turned into a blast of anger and she howled as she kicked him in the chest. He let go of her, then tumbled off the wall.

She peered over the edge. He had not dropped into the inferno, but had landed on a narrow, stone bridge that connected the fortress to a freestanding tower. He sprang to his feet and hurled his spear. She leapt aside with a margin of inches. But when her feet touched down again, the wall vibrated at the crash of Adranath’s spell. Large blocks of stone fell free. Dasha careened through the air and landed beside Kabur. The warlord unsheathed a heavy sword and lunged at her.

Blind fury drove her now. To her perception Kabur’s blade moved like molasses. She dodged it and smashed blow after blow on his injured body. The warlord staggered but she did not stop. With each strike the fortress shook, the flames roared, the smoke clogged her aching lungs. Then Kabur’s sword found a gap in her defense. The point shoved into her belly. But the pain meant nothing to her. To his smoky form she bellowed, “Your gullibility has ruined us! Is this how the Juka face eternity?”

Warlord Kabur knew his own part in this nightmare. She could see the mad anguish in his reptilian eyes. With a scream he pushed the sword deeper inside Dasha’s abdomen. For an instant her body faltered. Her eyesight flickered. Then the blade was gone from inside her.

The miasma of pain and fire and smoke made time drag slowly. She saw the stone bridge crumble under the Juka’s feet. He flailed his arms for balance as he dropped into the flaming air.

A voice in her mind said, Is this how the Meer face eternity?

With strange detachment she watched her hand reach for Kabur. She grabbed his wrist and he gripped hers. His great weight almost jerked her off the bridge, but she pulled him up from the hungry flames as her own strength faded. Then she collapsed in a whorl of heat. She felt the warlord hoist her in his arms and run to the tower at the end of the bridge. There they knelt behind a fallen stone.

“The Juka live with honor,” he growled.

“Let’s make sure that we live at all.” Her fingertips were bloody. In the dust and soot of the tower roof she inscribed a blink rune. With a prayer to the ancestors she activated the spell. Light blanketed them, pale and cool.

They appeared in heavy darkness. Sounds echoed from the hard walls of a cavern. Dasha lit a magic glow to reveal the same cave in which they had conducted their duel several nights earlier. A single glance was enough to agree them. Quickly she healed the worst of their wounds, then they ran for the distant mouth of the cave. On a high slope they emerged to see what damage Master Adranath had done.

The valley was a bowl of flame that slopped over the mountainous edges. Smoke rose from beyond the ridgeline where the inferno was proceeding across the landscape.

No one had survived in the city or on the mountainsides. So proudly had each race mustered its forces that few Juke or Meer remained alive in other places. In the best of circumstances, survival would have been difficult now. And the deadly frosts of winter lurked weeks or days away.

In silence they watched the column of smoke billow from the valley, like a giant monument on an unthinkable grave.

Inside the cave they found the huge predator that had nearly eaten Dasha. It was close to death from its wounds, weak from blood loss. Together they killed it. The meat would sustain them until the fires diminished.

Two days later they left the cavern again. Side by side they gazed down at the black valley. Little remained now but piles of stone that had once been the walls of the great Jukan fortress. Already the humans had begun to pick through the rubble. Scavenger gargoyles circled the cold, greying sky. Dasha did not want to think what they might do with the charred remains of two fallen races.

Warlord Kabur’s frown was heavy. He lifted his chin with defiant pride. “Though the flesh passes, honor is eternal. The Juka carved their place in history.”

Dasha said nothing, but her thoughts would not rest. Master Adranath had once told her, Wisdom accepts the inevitability of change. But even now she refused to believe him. The Meer had founded their spiritual beliefs on the truth of reincarnation. Dasha knew her people would appear again. Their form might be strange but their spirit would not die. They would always look ahead, but they must never fear what lies behind them.

That, she suspected, was the real essence of wisdom. The lesson had come at a horrible price, but perhaps the ancestors themselves were a party to this fate. Hers was not to judge their motives. She would simply look ahead and never fear again.

Time tramples greatness to rubble and dust, but glory is never forgotten. Elder winds sing of the past to those calm enough to listen.

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