Britain prepares for war!

Today in the city of Britain the citizens of that town breathed a collective sigh of relief as a citizen named Lothar purchased the services of the Paladins to come and watch over them. Fears of impending invasion by the evil controllers and their golem army has a lot of people on edge recently. Rumors and tales of golems being able to kill even powerful creatures such as dragons and elder gazers permeate the town gossip. Yet adventurers and merchants alike seem prepared for, and even excited by the prospect of war. For those who have fears, however, rest easy as there are citizens such as Lothar who are willing and able to pay for your protection.

Posted on Friday, November 2, 2001, 1:08 PM EST by Hanse Swildish (World)

Nystul Builds Device to Disrupt Exodus' Spell

As I went to Britain City there was a large commotion. People were speaking about the device Nystul was building all around. I also received many reports of the device's construction. Nystul the wise mage and advisor to Lord British had asked for the aid of Britannians to supply iron ingots, shadow ingots, gears, arcane gems, "clockwork assemblies" and "power crystals" in the construction of the device. The power crystals were the strange new purple glowing crystals that could be found on the Golems still being sighted in Britannia. From all around people gathered and gave what they could. I finally arrived only to witness the completed device. It was a strange dark tower standing about two stories high. Crystal-gems adorned the device along its edge and a strange mechanical motion could be seen as spike-like protrusions rhythmically moved in and out of the machine. The device appeared both magical and mechanical. I am no tinker so I had no clue as to how the device worked. Nystul the mage merely replied it would be used to reveal magically hidden towers that Exodus has placed throughout Britannia. Nystul also said these towers are stealing energy from this realm. Walking about the onlookers I asked questions. Recounting many tales I learned that the device took an amazingly large amount of ingots and crystals to create. The necessary components were: 100,000 iron ingots 50,000 shadow ingots 250 clockwork assemblies 100 power crystals 5000 gears 5000 arcane gems With such an astounding amount I am truly in awe of the efforts of the citizens of Britannia to join together and aid in the construction. To all that aided I thank thee for thy efforts. There were also reports of a minor attack at the bridge in Britain City. Apparently someone was attempting to stop the construction of the device. I also received reports from the Yew Town Council and the Yew Militia of Gargoyle Enforcers in the Yew territory. I asked Ambassador Syrina of the Lia Fail Empire to ask her brethren to be on the watch for these gargoyles. According to the people I asked these Gargoyle Enforcers are quite powerful. I later went with Warduke of the Trinsic Honor Guard and the Yew Militia to investigate. Some Gargoyle Enforcers were encountered but not many. They appear to be scattered by themselves with some Golem and a Controller nearby. They appear as strong as demons and with powerful magic. They all seem to possess a magical axe of some kind. I advise those travelling through the regions to be cautious. Auren Therion Mayor of Britain

Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2001, 2:28 AM EST by Ce'Nedra Willow (World)

A Race Unchained - The Gargoyle Scenario

"I hear strangely dressed mages have been appearing in the land with bizarre creatures!" Barkeeps all over Britannia began telling tales of these strange mages appearing in the lands, seemingly escorted by very large and intimidating creatures called golems that seemed to be very complex machines. The "strangely dressed mages" turned out to be, after further investigation, Controllers. What they controlled was already known since whenever a Controller was around, a golem or three was always nearby. Once citizens began to realize that these new Controllers and their golems must be stopped, they stood no chance. With wave after wave of eager and benevolent citizens rushing to the front to slay these creatures, the Controllers and their golems began dropping like flies. On the corpses of these powerful Controllers were new items called Arcane Gems. It was shortly revealed that these Arcane Gems were capable of creating Arcane Clothing: pieces of clothing that allowed spells to be cast without the use of reagents. It seemed that the Controllers and golems would be easily dealt with after all. And then the ones seemingly behind the Controller and Golem attacks, a dark stranger and a mysterious overlord known only as "The Master", realize that their minions are being easily dispatched with a simple conjuring of a simple blade spirit. Dissatisfied with the ease of their defeat, the Master decides to defend the golems from these magically summoned spirits by giving them the ability to dispel magically created creatures and spirits; at the cost of using precious resources that could have been used to make the golems even more powerful. This forces defenders to deal with these powerful golems by other means, usually brute force in melee combat. It was also noticed that the great city found in Ilshenar was no longer occupied by just golems and their Controllers, but by enslaved gargoyles forced to defend the city from outsiders. It seemed that the helping the enslaved gargoyles was beyond possible, so releasing them from their suffering seemed the only way to help them... It was quickly realized that in the corpses of newer golems, large contraptions called clockwork assemblies were being found. While large and bulky, these assemblies led many crafters and tinkerers to get hopes that, perhaps, golems could be crafter, given the proper resources. The battles still waged on, with no end in sight, but now with new foes. Gargoyle Enforcers and Gargoyle Destroyers were now roaming the city in Ilshenar, defending it from further trespassing. Still not ready to give up fighting, Britannians manage to keep up the attacks on new golem and Controller spawns. But something has changed... Instead of finding bits of junk such as pieces of metal and gears, defenders are finding bright, glowing crystals with the bulky clockwork assemblies on the bodies of golems. After much research, it is discovered that if tinkers were to use this "power crystal" in conjunction with the clockwork assembly, and with the right components, a golem could be crafted. The idea of having a powerful pet with mere tinkering skill was amazing. Now the battlefield was more level than it had been in the past and these newly crafted golems were quickly put to use in combating Controllers and their golems. When the future of the lands seemed grim, a flicker of hope sparked in the lands. It seemed that Nystul, with the help of Krett, a very skilled tinkerer, would be able to craft a device that would help in the struggle against the Master, who's name was revealed to be Exodus. After studying power crystals and analyzing their magic, Nystul concluded that, while he was not sure who or what was creating the golems, he had indeed seen and felt the type of magic before. An omen perhaps? News spread through the land that Exodus was using magic from the lands of Britannia to power his production of golems and other hellish things that dared not be thought of. The question was raised as to how he was doing this great task. Doing so would require a large amount of very powerful gathering points for the magic to be sent to his great pyramid in Ilshenar. The device that Nystul began to work on was said to be able to reveal the location of these> towers and therefore enable citizens of the lands to seek out and destroy them, bringing the end of this terrible battle closer to a reality. The one drawback:the device required an unthinkable amount of resources that, surprisingly, was very shortly gathered by those eager to help end the conflicts as soon as possible. As resources were gathered, the device was slowly built, until finally, the last gears, ingots, and gems were collected, thus completing the magical device. Soon, it was activated and the twenty-four towers that were channeling magic to Ilshenar were all revealed. Finding the towers, at first, proved a bit difficult, but through word of mouth, locations of all towers in Trammel and Felucca were known to many. In a few hours, the land was cleansed of these abominations through solving their four puzzles and the final steps were taken towards freeing the gargoyles from their enslavement. The final battle that ensued after the barriers into Exodus' pyramid was a very long and violent one. Blocked off by a three level barrier, adventurers were a bit dismayed. Soon it was found that four crystals were powering each barrier. It was then realized that each crystal was somehow linked to an Exodus Minion Lord. The horrible fact then materialized that to get through the barriers, warriors and mages would have to coordinate their efforts to destroy twelve of these extremely powerful clockwork minions. After hours of battling the fierce minions, success was achieved and access was granted to the Dark Core, the device used to maintain control over the gargoyles. A few buttons were pressed and the Core began to overload, and was shut down. With the gargoyles now free, they had control over their city again and seemed to return to business as usual. One thing that had changed was the fact that gargoyle npc's were selling goods. Not everyday goods, but NEW items. These items were books that taught the reader how to mine for glass-quality sand, mine for high-quality stone, create items through the art of glassblowing, and how to make valuables with stonecrafting. Upon reading these books, players were able to access new skills. Grandmaster Alchemists, upon reading the book on glassblowing and obtaining sand, could now attempt to make glassblown items by using a blow pipe. Grandmaster Carpenters, also upon reading the Stonecrafting book and obtaining granite could now make stonecrafted items by using a mallet and chisel. Thanks to the coordination of efforts from spreading out and destroying evil towers to going deep into Ilshenar and helping to defeat the Exodus Minion Lords and ending this plague that has had the land in it's grip for so long. Good job to all those who participated. What the future holds no one knows, but it is a fact that such teamwork and cooperation will be needed again. Until then, stay safe and enjoy this time to rest. Snake of Moonglow

Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2001, 5:03 AM EST by Snake (World)

Awoken

Though the story already came to a conclusion, we will be running a series of article-stories recapping the events of this past Golem Scenario. Here is our first piece written by Stratics' own Swamp Thing: Creeping across the floor, it came. Slowly climbing the post of my bed, it came. Sliding across my quilt, it came. Poised above my face, it struck my eyes. I leaped out of bed, gripping the dagger I kept by it. Prepared to kill whatever attacked me, I glanced over my bed. There was no monster, just slivers of light shining through my shutters and onto my pillow. I growled. I walked over to the shutters and threw them open. Light flooded the room, but there was something wrong. It was mid-day and the roosters had not woken me. In fact, the town was quiet. Britain had never been this quiet before. The streets were filled only by the wind, rustling the fall leaves. After dressing, I headed downstairs to my shop. Looking over the racks of finely crafted weapons and sparkling armor, I went to the back of the shop and entered the back room. Inside was a small office with a desk and a number of crates containing various types of tools and ingots. From a mahogany case, I pulled a glimmering sword. Wiping the dust and dirt from its blade, I knelt, placing the tip on the floor. Leaning against, I closed my eyes. "Blade of my ancestors, on this day I ask for your protection, guide and protect me." After a few moments of silence, I sheathed the sword at my side and gathered up combat supplies. Locking the door behind me, I stepped out onto the quiet streets of Britain. With my sword at my side and combat supplies hanging in small pouches from my belt, I headed towards the bank. As I walked past the healers hut, I glanced in, but no one was there. Even the popular Sweet Dreams Inn was left abandoned. Britain had only been this quite during the final siege of the savages and orcs. Finally at the bank, I knew why Britain was so empty. We were under attack. From what, I didn't know. Parties of warriors, mages, tamers, and bards gathered and prepared to head to the front lines. As I walked towards the closest party to discover the peril Britain was in, it happened. "Out of the way! Move!" screamed a horseman, "wounded coming through!" The crowd parted and carts flowed through the path, leaving a bloody trail. Each cart carried dozens of wounded and the wounds were severe. Broken limbs, some still gripping the remains of a broken sword, and platemail crumpled as it if had been a piece of paper still clung to warrior bodies. These were the lucky ones. Running along side of the carts, I traveled with them to the healers hut. When we arrived, the healers who had been driving the carts, jumped off and started to take the wounded inside. I recognized one of the healers, his name was Josh and he was one of the local healers. I rushed over to help him. "Josh, what happened?" "They were too powerful, my friend. They fight with no heart and feel no pain. There were too many. We can't stop them. More are coming this way." ""Where are they?" I asked a young warrior I was helping off the cart. "Crossroads, sir." Josh, I'm going to go check it out." "Here," he said as he threw me a small pouch, "take this." The pouch contained bandages and healing potions for the battle. I rushed to the stables and retrieved my horse. Riding hard across the farms, I saw the mass of warriors converging on the mountain pass. It was the last stand and the final defense for Britain. The battle raged hard on the other side. Crossing through the pass, the ground was littered with fallen bodies of our comrades and large masses of metal. As I reached the other side, I saw a most horrific sight. The Golem army approached.

Posted on Wednesday, December 5, 2001, 2:53 AM EST by Ce'Nedra Willow (World)