The Deck of Many Things (Round 15)

I haven't ran across the deck with a card in it for a couple of months though I did have the following two logs saved up. In both cases I pulled out the same card - The Sun, but when sacrificed by the immortal involved a different message shows up. Again in each case the immortal requested a piece of equipment but from past experience I knew one would add a negative affect and the other a positive. Here are the logs:

Torlynn Market
Exits: north southeast
The Deck of Many Things lies in wait for a brave soul.
The Deck of Many Things says 'If you can find a card within me, you might be lucky enough to draw something of value.
However, once you submit to chance, you put yourself at the mercy of the cards.
The Deck of Many Things winks suggestively.

> exam deck
You take a closer look at the Deck of Many Things on the ground...
The deck takes the appearance of a very finely wrought and veneered wooden card case, yet the strong magical aura surrounding it offers proof that this artifact is not simply what it appears to be.
The Deck of Many Things appears to be full.
The Deck of Many Things contains:
     the Key to the Deck of Many Things

> g key deck
You get the Key to the Deck of Many Things from the Deck of Many Things.
The Key to the Deck shudders menacingly.
You drop the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Vl'aresch gives you one gold coin for your sacrifice of the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Be Forewarned : You could lose all that you own.
Skold has been given the chance to draw from the Deck of Many Things.

> g card deck
You get a card from the Deck of Many Things.
A mystical being appears and points at you. Your senses reel as you are flung through the void to another place.
The card twists and wriggles in your hands.
A great flash of light envelopes the room, blinding you momentarily.
When your vision returns, you see that the Deck of Many Things lies before you once more.
It is highly recommended that you examine the deck before drawing from it. When you are ready, simply take the card.

> g card deck
You get a card from The Deck of Many Things.
You see that you have drawn The Sun.
What this card bodes for your future, only an immortal of level 57 or above can discover for you.

> look
Within a Small Circle of Mystical Stones
All the world is blank. Nothing is visible here but a gathering of smooth rocks, set into a pattern of circular form. Each rock has a faint glow to it, and each one is slightly different. They appear to have been ravaged by the winds of change throughout countless eons, and have been left in this blank void as a testament to the truth of eternity.
Exits: none
(Glowing) (Humming) One of the rocks in the circle glows translucently.

> who imm
-----------------------------------[ IMMORTALS ]------------------------------
Muse            Romani de Carpathia Vote: http://tinyurl.com/thoric  FB: http://tinyurl.com/thoric-rod Twitter: @RealmsOfDespair. (Deity of Baali) [Head of The Symposium]
Newblet         Loril Gemstone-Edelstone, on Cloud Nine. (Ringbearers) [Co-Head of Newbie Council]
2 players.

> tell romani Hi Romani. Can you please help me out with the deck?
You tell Romani 'Hi Romani. Can you please help me out with the deck?'

Romani climbs out of your pocket.

Romani smiles happily.

> smile
You smile happily.

Romani says 'Good luck :)'

> give card romani
You give a card to Romani.

 Romani looks at you.

> cross
You cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Romani says 'here we go'

Romani drops a card.

Romani sacrifices a card to Romani.
The heat of the sun blazes forth, affecting anything it touches.

Romani says 'A piece of armor please'

> remove ankle
You stop using a demonskin ankle bracer.

> give ankle roma
You give a demonskin ankle bracer to Romani.

Romani utters the words, 'uoculoihuyl'.
An item held by Romani briefly luminesces.

Romani gives you a demonskin ankle bracer.

Romani pats you on your back.

The deck of many things is once again shuffled and dealt by the Gods.

> say thank you for doing that
You say 'thank you for doing that'

> save
Saved...

Romani smiles happily.

Romani gives you a magical mystery cookie.

Romani has transferred you.
Torlynn Market
Exits: north southeast
The Deck of Many Things that lay in wait for Skold rests here.

> rec tab ankl
You recite a magical tablet of disclosure.
Object 'a demonskin ankle bracer' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 44 armor, weight 3.
Locations it can be worn:  ankle
Special properties:  none
Genres allowed:  sorcerer rogue fighter aberrant
Alignments allowed:  evil neutral
This armor has a gold value of 20000.
Armor class is 20 of 20.
Affects susceptible:fire by 5%.

 The second log shows a very similar pull but a more positive result:

A Path in the Rice Fields of Edo
Exits: north south southeast southwest
The Deck of Many Things lies in wait for a brave soul.
The Deck of Many Things says 'If you can find a card within me, you might be lucky enough to draw something of value.
However, once you submit to chance, you put yourself at the mercy of the cards.
The Deck of Many Things winks suggestively.

> g key deck
You get the Key to the Deck of Many Things from the Deck of Many Things.
The Key to the Deck shudders menacingly.
You drop the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Vl'aresch gives you one gold coin for your sacrifice of the Key to the Deck of Many Things.
Be Forewarned : You could lose all that you own.
Skold has been given the chance to draw from the Deck of Many Things.

> g card deck
You get a card from the Deck of Many Things.
A mystical being appears and points at you. Your senses reel as you are flung through the void to another place.
The card twists and wriggles in your hands.
A great flash of light envelopes the room, blinding you momentarily.
When your vision returns, you see that the Deck of Many Things lies before you once more.
It is highly recommended that you examine the deck before drawing from it. When you are ready, simply take the card.

> g card deck
You get a card from The Deck of Many Things.
You see that you have drawn The Sun.
What this card bodes for your future, only an immortal of level 57 or above can discover for you.

> who imm
-----------------------------------[ IMMORTALS ]------------------------------
Muse            Romani de Carpathia Vote: http://tinyurl.com/thoric  FB: http://tinyurl.com/thoric-rod Twitter: @RealmsOfDespair. (Deity of Baali) [Head of The
Symposium]
1 player.

> tell romani Hi Romani - can you please help me out with the deck
You tell Romani 'Hi Romani - can you please help me out with the deck'

> twid
You patiently twiddle your thumbs.

The deck of many things is once again shuffled and dealt by the Gods.

> beckon romani
You beckon to Romani...

Romani climbs out of your pocket.

Romani says 'hi'

Romani beckons you...

> say hi
You say 'hi'

Romani says 'hi'

> smile
You smile happily.

> give card roma
You give a card to Romani.

> cross
You cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Romani says 'good luck'

Romani drops a card.

Romani sacrifices a card to Romani.
The bright light of the sun seems to gently enhance your faculties.

Romani says 'one piece of eq please'

> rem helm
You stop using the Bone Helm of Ryuukoroshi.

> give helm rom
You give the Bone Helm of Ryuukoroshi to Romani.

Romani says, 'ooOOooOOooOOoo.'

Romani thinks, 'Hmmmm.'

Romani utters the words, 'uoculoihuyl'.
An item held by Romani briefly luminesces.

Romani puts her finger in her mouth and says, "Oopsie! Did I do that?"

Romani grins.
> egr
You grin evilly.

Romani gives you the Bone Helm of Ryuukoroshi.

Romani says 'there we go'

> say thanks
You say 'thanks'

> rec tab helm
You recite a magical tablet of disclosure.
Object 'the Bone Helm of Ryuukoroshi' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 armor, weight 10.
Locations it can be worn:  head
Special properties:  bless
Races allowed:  Human Elf Dwarf Half-Orc Half-Troll Half-Elf Gith Drow Sea-Elf Lizardman
Classes allowed:  Druid Augurer
Genres allowed:  fighter
This armor has a gold value of 50242.
Armor class is 30 of 30.
Affects damage roll by 5.
Affects strength by 2.
Affects wisdom by 1.
Affects save vs breath by -3.
Affects save vs spell by -1.
Affects hp by 75.
Affects mana by 75.
Affects affected_by by scrying.

The same card, same warrior and same helpful immortal both times but different results. The only difference was the message after Romani sacrificed the card: "The heat of the sun blazes forth, affecting anything it touches." compared to "The bright light of the sun seems to gently enhance your faculties."

My other favourite part of this was watching Romani sacrifice a card to Romani. Thanks again for the help.

Dying Isn't All Bad

I've been very slow on the updates again lately. It's not that I've stopped playing though the Christmas/New Year period did slow me down, but more a combination of procrastination, not having anything exciting to write about and not having any major success of late until a small breakthrough today.

One area I've been working on exploring lately is D'Morian's Land. I'd heard of a rumour of an item that could be only gained through an unusual way - death. This is unusual in that to get an item you normally need to find it lying around, put it together from the other pieces or from the cold dead hands of the mob they are on. The hard part is you need to die to a particular mob in a particular room.

The room you need to die in is the following:

At the Back of the Tower Knoll
A short flight of steps leads from the path up to the back of the knoll. The steps are badly chipped and also caked with the thick dried blood that seems to be so liberally spread about here. The air here is mysteriously calm, although the heather further down hill still ripples in the wind.  A few odd looking items are scattered about on the stony ground at the foot of the steps, they seem to be broken pieces of armor and a few blood-soaked rags.
Exits: northeast northwest

You can examine both armor and rags which gives some clue that there is more to this room than meets the eye:

>exam armor
A steel vambrace lies bent and discarded at the foot of the steps, while
what resembles a pouldron is sticking out of the heather off to the side.

>exam rags
A few fragments of clothing are caught tangled in the heather, or glued to
the steps with blood. 

The mob you need to kill you in this room is a decaying zombie. This is made hard as the rooms in this part of the area have a program where the wind blows you out of them. Add in zombies then chasing you and casting spells that drain your movement points quickly and things start getting tricky. I've been most successful by killing all the zombies and then waiting in the room for repop to die. However, when you do get lucky:

A decaying zombie's bite wounds you!
You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much!
The Zombie's hands clutch around your neck.
(claws of the mole gets damaged)
Curse the gods, you've lost 0 experience!

..Everything begins to fade to black.

You feel yourself leaving your body... rising up into the air, you feel more free than you have ever felt before...

However, before your deity comes to collect your soul, you feel a strange pulling sensation as strange and colorful mists swirl around you...

If you are lucky (pop rate isn't 100%)... When you do your corpse retrieval the following item will be in it:

>c identify dented

Object 'dented vambraces of a fallen warrior' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 armor, weight 6.
Locations it can be worn:  arms
Special properties:  metal
This armor has a gold value of 3000.
Owner:  Charix
Armor class is 14 of 14.
Affects damage roll by 6.
Affects armor class by -10.
Affects constitution by 1.
Affects strength by 2.
Affects hp by 10.

>exam dented
You take a closer look at dented vambraces of a fallen warrior in inventory...
You see nothing special.
As you look more closely, you notice that it is in superb condition.
It appears to be within or below your level range.

Frustratingly they are owner tagged - this one to a cleric of mine.  I'm not sure what the best use of these arms are for - maybe a barbarian or to replace a few cheapo evil characters using Shimmergloom arms? It's an option though that not many have heard of before. Now hopefully I can figure out a few more things in this area.