The Deck of Many Things (Round 12)

I managed to find the deck two days in a row straight after reboot with both attempts not working out the way I planned. My first pull got me transed through to fight some raven. This time I was prepared with plenty of create spring potions - unfortunately I was not prepared with true sight potions. After several gouges I died miserably. With all the spam I didn't even manage to log the events. The following days results are here:

 >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.
Sashell 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.

>tell loril can you please help me out with the deck
You tell Loril 'can you please help me out with the deck'

Loril bounces in on a fluffy, white cloud named Nine.

>ngree lor
You nod in greeting towards Loril.

Loril smiles happily.

>say Hi
You say 'Hi'

Loril exclaims 'Hi!'

Loril crosses her fingers for good luck.

>give card loril
You give a card to Loril.

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

Loril looks at you.

Loril drops a card.

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

>garb
You are using:
<used as light>      (Red Aura) Shifting black flames
<worn on finger>     (Red Aura) (Humming) Set's ring of Power
<worn on finger>     (Red Aura) (Humming) Set's ring of Power
<worn around neck>   (Red Aura) (Glowing) Cloak of Bloodlust
<worn around neck>   (Red Aura) (Glowing) Cloak of Bloodlust
<worn on body>       (Red Aura) (Humming) Golden Plate
<worn on head>       a fallohide's leather cap
<worn on legs>       a fallohide's leather breeches
<worn on feet>       (Glowing) demonscale Boots
<worn on hands>      (Red Aura) Sin
<worn on arms>       (Red Aura) a shadowy pair of dragonscale arm guards
<worn about body>    a fallohide's cloak
<worn about waist>   a fallohide's pipeweed pouch
<worn about waist>   a fallohide's waist sash
<worn around wrist>  (Glowing) a crystal dragon bracer
<worn around wrist>  (Glowing) a crystal dragon bracer
<wielded>            (Red Aura) (Glowing) darkness
<dual wielded>       (Red Aura) (Glowing) darkness
<worn on ears>       ears of the fox
<worn on eyes>       (Red Aura) (Glowing) Visage of Bloodlust
<worn on back>       [nothing]
<worn over face>     [nothing]
<worn around ankle>  a turqoise anklet
<worn around ankle>  a blue, glassy chain

Loril says 'Please hand me a piece of armor? :)'

>rem set
You stop using Set's ring of Power.

>c id ring
Object 'Set's ring of Power' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 46 armor, weight 1.
Locations it can be worn:  finger
Special properties:  hum dark evil metal
Alignments allowed:  evil neutral
This armor has a gold value of 340600.
Armor class is 12 of 12.
Affects hp by 50.
Affects mana by 25.
Affects intelligence by 2.
Affects hit roll by 4.
Affects damage roll by 4.

>give ring loril
You give Set's ring of Power to Loril.

Loril says 'And bear with me as I find the command for this.'

You hear Loril hrm.

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

Loril gives you Set's ring of Power.

Loril forces you to 'save'.
Saved...

>c id set
Object 'Set's ring of Power' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 46 armor, weight 1.
Locations it can be worn:  finger
Special properties:  hum dark evil metal
Alignments allowed:  evil neutral
This armor has a gold value of 340600.
Armor class is 12 of 12.
Affects hp by 50.
Affects mana by 25.
Affects intelligence by 2.
Affects hit roll by 4.
Affects damage roll by 4.
Affects susceptible:fire by 5%.

Loril bounces around.

Loril found it!

>smile
You smile happily.

>say thanks for that
You say 'thanks for that'

Loril says 'Well... ;)'

Loril says 'You're welcome. :)'

Loril wonders 'Would you like me to send you back to the deck or to the []?'

>say square is good thanks
You say 'square is good thanks'

Loril beams brightly.  Why is that?

Loril says 'Take care, then. In 3 ...'

Loril smiles happily.

Loril has transferred you.
Darkhaven Square
You are standing within the expanse of the famous Darkhaven Square. An immense stone statue of Duke Luther sits in the center of the square, surrounded by fountains of shimmering crystal water.  Gardens and shrubbery enhance the air of serenity and peace here in the center of the great city. A plaque set into the base of the fountain attracts your eye.  Cobblestone roads lead away in the four cardinal directions, while to the northeast and northwest are forested paths.  The cathedral spires of Notre Dame de Sioux rise with majesty above the treetops to the northwest.
Exits: north east south west up northeast northwest
A large sundial lies here, useless during the night hours.
Someone thought it best to discard this cap here.
Torrents of flame flow a river of fire through the night sky above the square.
Stone fountains containing crystal clear water surround the Duke's statue.

Towering Despair

Since I won a free immortal corpse retrieval scroll from the Deck of Many Things I've been thinking of places where I can use this insurance policy to take on risks I wouldn't otherwise. This means adventuring to the rare risky places where you can't supplicate a corpse. All up from memory I have managed to have characters die in three of these types of rooms:

1. Blackmote's room in the Tower of Despair
2. Albino Goblins in the Desert of Despair
3. Jade in Seth's Fortress

Each of these deaths have led to differing degrees of difficulty in corpse retrievals. In some cases it involved killing the mob with alts, using grouped characters to loot the corpse or asking for an immortal to help out with the high price included. Of these three areas the one I am most curious about finding out more on is the Tower of Despair...

This area changed a lot since the old days of before the shattering. Following this event a lot of the mobs and equipment from the area was boosted. In the past Orcus was the most powerful mob in the area but since events after the shattering he has disappeared and since then many rumours have arisen. The area starts off with Tyrax the forsaken. He has several keywords that he responds to with some more information on the storyline of the area. I know he responds to the words Blackmote, Orcus, Hastur and Covenant. I know there are more words but can't remember them all.

>Before the Tower of Despair
A black, windowless spire rises up out of the ground, seemingly torn from the bowels of the earth herself.  The top of the tower is lost from view as it rises up into a thick grey mist.  A furious flapping of wings and an abrupt scream can be heard from far overhead.  The hunter and the hunted.
Exits: north south
Tyrax the Forsaken stands vigil against the evil of this tower.
Tyrax is shrouded in flowing shadow and light.

>say blackmote
You say 'blackmote'

Tyrax says 'Poor fool Blackmote.  He does not comprehend that his Master, whether alive or dead, is gone.  Still he guards the Tower, maintaining the prison and keeping the experiments contained.'

>say orcus
You say 'orcus'

Tyrax snarls angrily.
Tyrax says 'If it were not for that foul beast, I would still...
Tyrax glowers with hate brimming in his eyes.
Tyrax says 'This anger cost me much before.  I will learn patience.

>say hastur
You say 'hastur'

Tyrax closes his eyes.

Tyrax says 'Speak not the name of Orcus' lackey.  Twas he that slew my companions.  Twas he who forced my choice and ruined my life. Forsaken by my own pride to guard this spot for eternity.  Speak no more of this to me.  I wish not the memory.
Tyrax' eyes open and fix again on the Tower.

>say blackmote
You say 'blackmote'

Tyrax says 'Poor fool Blackmote.  He does not comprehend that his Master, whether alive or dead, is gone.  Still he guards the Tower, maintaining the prison and keeping the experiments contained.'

>say covenant
You say 'covenant'

Tyrax shakes its head.
Tyrax says 'Nay, no legend I know of speaks of a Covenant.  Though some travellers ages back spoke of a beast named the Covenant Hebredite. It was a beast that ravaged all of Darkhaven, they say.'
Tyrax shrugs helplessly.

Tyrax says 'Some said it had something to do with the Shattering, but I can not say for certain that is true.'

Beyond Tyrax the first part of the area has some nice mobs for when trying to get through the later part of levelling. Past here though comes Blackmote:

Twisted and warped, the essence of Blackmore has expanded beyond his corporeal form. A black mass encompassed by swirling fire, he blocks passage beyond the Stone Arch.

In the old days he used to have a crossbow that would shoot you for 100 hit points of damage from several rooms away if you forgot to recast invisible after fighting the nearby mobs. These days however he hits harder and has some real nasty features - an ip1 limit (never forget to check this before entering his room), is tunnelled to three characters, plenty of gouge attacks and most frightening of all he is in a no supplicate room. I've heard of some orders having one of their tests for new applicants to successfully kill him solo. For most players this is probably the first no supplicate room they ever fight in. My preferred strategy is to use a paladin or vampire to tank and vampires or barbarians as hitters. The one trick you can use to your advantage is that if you go link-dead here and reconnect fast enough you will get transported out of the tower and back to Tyrax. This is particularly handy when doing it solo for when you run low on potions or need to repair urgently.

With perseverance you can bring him down without too much effort:

Your pierce tears Blackmote!
Blackmote is DEAD!!
The shifting cloud of gas and flame explodes in a fiery ball!
(darkness gets damaged)
The crumpled form of Blackmote lies on the floor, clutching his side.  As the light in his eyes fades, he rants loudly.
Blackmote yells 'You promised me dominion!  Legions at my command!'
Blackmote raises his fist, drenched in his own blood.
Blackmote growls 'The masses at my feet as their own people, twisted and blighted, feasted on their flesh, ended the lives of the useless.  Bringing an age of the strong, an age of power.'
Blackmote's eyes flare.
Blackmote yells 'You promised me dominion, damn you!  Damn you!'
Aware of your presence, Blackmote stretches forth his claw one last time to gut you.  As he lunges, he falls pitifully to the ground.
Blackmote drops circle of mists.
A horn is wrenched from the body of Blackmote.
You see nothing like that in the corpse of Blackmote.

The belt he drops is handy but nothing super special. Not really worth the effort, but killing Blackmote is more about getting access to the next level of the tower which has the four tests: fire, fear, combat and knowledge. The first three involve killing more challenging mobs while the test of knowledge involves avoiding death traps. Each of these when successful besides a chance of popping a useful item will pop a key such as:

Your slash tears An unimaginable nightmare!
An unimaginable nightmare is DEAD!!
The shimmering forms coalesce into an aged gnome.
'Free' he says 'Of the nightmares, of the Demon Prince. But the nightmares he will unleash on this world, I pray my children survived what he tried to bring to pass.
The gnome spits black blood from his mouth.
The mage pulls a shimmering key from his rags as he slumps over.
The eyes of the mage close as he breathes his last.
An unimaginable nightmare drops the key of fear.
An unimaginable nightmare gasps its last breath and blood spurts out of its mouth and ears.
You see nothing like that in the corpse of An unimaginable nightmare.
The corpse of An unimaginable nightmare holds:
     Nothing.

And this is where it all gets tricky and the myths begin. It used to be that beyond the four tests was the demon prince Orcus. Once Orcus was killed Hastur the Unspeakable would pop, but now they are gone from the Tower. While some have said they were completely removed from the game it is not entirely true since:

>c loc mournblade
For a brief moment, your awareness expands to encompass the whole world...
...and you find to be in existence:

Mournblade on Hastur

How to get to Hastur is the mystery... I've heard rumours that they are accessible from the top of the Tower if you do some secret things, that the way to them is no longer through the tower but through Nevermore and even that they are now located deep within the Realm of Worship. Either way a free immortal corpse retrieval scroll will come in handy.

There is one more source of easily accessible information on Orcus, Hastur and the possible covenant between them - Ravenhill. Besides eating Seth sets and not giving anything in return he does have some interesting speculation:

Ravenhill's Loft
Shelves and cabinets filled with cluttered books, beakers and instruments overcrowd this small niche.  Wedged neatly between two bookshelves is a large serpentine apparatus of glass and metal.  A black oak desk rests under a small arched window.  Numerous ravens land on the windowsill while some perch on copper bars situated throughout the room.  The scent of burning sulphur assails your nostrils.
Exits: [south]
(Glowing) A cauldron in the center of the room gives off a sulfurous steam.
A tall man with sunken features stares intently into a cauldron.

> say orcus
You say 'orcus'

Ravenhill furrows his brow.
Ravenhill says 'Most curious, most curious indeed are the events which have transpired within the Tower of Despair.  I have corresponded with Tyrax of late, using my ravens as couriers. From what I gather from these messages, and my divinations, the Demon Prince died some years ago.  His carcass was possessed.  I do not know if he housed the entity himself or some other malignant spirit.'

Ravenhill run his finger across his chin while scribbling in his book with his free hand.

Ravenhill looks up and notices you are still here.
Ravenhill says 'Ah, sorry.  I had forgotten you were here.  What was it we were discussing?'

Ravenhill taps a finger on his desk.

Ravenhill says 'Ah yes, Orcus.  To finish what I was saying, Tyrax does not believe Orcus is truly gone.  He does not think the Demon could pass from this world without his knowledge.  As for myself, I think Tyrax overstates his claims.  It is my hope that Orcus long ago breathed his last.
As Ravenhill finishes his statement, he slowly drifts back to writing.

> say hastur
You say 'hastur'
Ravenhill yawns.
Ravenhill says 'Ah yes, the Unspeakable.  I hope that beast was banished back to the Pits that Orcus summoned him from.'

> say covenant
You say 'covenant'

Ravenhill says 'Many years back, Darkhaven was destroyed by a being, or beings, known as the Covenant Hebredite.  The remnants of their actions are the Ruins now inhabited by thieves and murderers ruled by Gravoc.  The motives of the Hebredites had always been a mystery.  Now it seems, or at least I theorize, that the Hebredites were the agents of whatever entity caused the Shattering.  They destroyed Darkhaven to harvest the souls of its citizens.  These souls were then to be used to free this entity.  But the number was greatly insufficient.  At this point, Gravoc began luring scoundrels to the Ruins to harvest their blood and souls.  The Ruins became a giant altar of sacrifice.'

Ravenhill leans forward and speaks quietly to you. Ravenhill says 'I believe this failed, which is why the entity sought other agents.  The Dread Lord and the Demon Prince.  I think that It was the source of their powers, but I can not verify this.'

Ravenhill leans back a bit.
Ravenhill says 'The Tower and the Fortress, combined with the Ruins, provided the souls and the blood.  In this moment, we were almost defeated.  It is fortunate we survived.'

Hopefully if I can find the time and a few allies I'll know more about this mystery.

The Deck of Many Things (Round 11)

I haven't had much luck finding the deck of late - the last 3 times I've found it someone else has beaten me to it first but today that changed:

The Deck of Many Things lies in wait for a brave soul.

>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.
Sashell has been given the chance to draw from the Deck of Many Things.

>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:
     a card

>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 Tower in Ruin.
As you gaze upon it, the scene upon the card comes to life and is acted out.
Ruin stretches out to engulf you, but by some happy fate you evade it.
A warm feeling fills your body and a scroll of fine parchment appears in your hands.
The cold winds of never rush through the void, whipping the card from your hand and returning you to the mortal realm.

>i
You are carrying 10 items and have room for 10 more:
     a rat tail
     a small birch chest
     an icicle wand
     a journal
     an ancient dagger
     the pearl of serpents
     a white scroll with blue writing
     a small green mineral sponge
     shield of the panther
     Sashell's free immortal cr scroll.

>save
Saved...

>exam scroll
You take a closer look at Sashell's free immortal cr scroll. in inventory...
The fine parchment of the scroll has a short phrase inscribed upon it in letters of gold...
This scroll is worth one free immortal corpse retrieval and is good only for the person whose name appears upon it.

>c id scroll
Object 'Sashell's free immortal cr scroll.' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 treasure, weight 1.
Special properties:  none

One of the exciting parts of the deck is that it all happens so fast and you get a screenful of text. The text that jumped out at me was the word "ruin" and thought I'd had a bad pull. The next words that I read were "happy fate" and "fine parchment" which lifted my hopes of getting a rename scroll. Getting a free CR scroll will be handy though it is only for the character the pulled the card. I have been thinking of changing my cheapo Halfling vampire into a devout character to try running a few obscure mobs and now I have this insurance policy I'll have to make the most of it.

Twenty Questions

Following the announcement of a new round of 20 questions on the Realms of Despair twitter account I decided 'd give it a go and see if I could track down the board in Vast Horizons. It didn't actually take me too long to find the board:

Checking the board I read up on the rules and saw that one question had already been posted:

[  1] Ceirana: 20 Questions - Game Rules
Fri Mar 20 10:37:45 2015
To: All
The game host will choose a specific thing for you to guess correctly.  They will give an opening hint or category, such as this example: "I'm thinking of a mob in the Realms..."

You may ask a YES OR NO question by posting it on this board.  One question per note.  Write your question very carefully!  It will be answered exactly based on how you write it.  The game host will post the answer on the note board after they read your  question.

You may not ask two questions in a row. This includes alts. There must be a question posted by a different person before you can post another question.

The hosting immortal reserves the right to remove any questions that do not follow the rules.

If a questioner guesses the correct answer (which must be done as one of the 20 questions, as in "Is it Harakiem?"), they win the game.  If the answer isn't correctly guessed after 20 questions, the game ends and nobody wins.

Say 'note' and 'quill' and you will be given a free note and quill.

[  2] Ceirana: Next Round Begins! You are trying to find which mob....
Tue May 26 12:03:37 2015
To: All
The thing you are searching for now is a mob in the realm.  May the best questionner win!

Please refer to note 1 for rules.  Enjoy!

[  3] Klaatu: question #1
Thu Jun  4 19:36:41 2015
To: 20 ?
Klaatu flaps his lips making a breeze - all should listen
did the mob exist pre-shattering ?

Klaatu has spoken - resume normal activities

I found it kind of tricky landing at the board and then having to think of a question. Without an answer to Klaatu's note posted yet it could literally be any mob in the whole Realms. Without thinking too much I posted the following note on the board:

[  4] Varlok: question #2
Fri Jun  5 09:57:52 2015
To: 20 ?
Nice new board.

My question: Is the mob a shopkeeper?

After posting this note I thought of better questions I should have asked like "Is the mob evil?", "Is the mob male?", "Is the mob located in xxxx geo?" and so on. When I managed to teleport onto the board again the next day to my surprise Ceirana had posted answers to the first two questions on the board as no and yes. This means we are looking for a shopkeeper added since the shattering... Unfortunately for me I couldn't post another note since no one else had posted a question since. Hopefully next time and hopefully I'll be able to win the competition.

Grinding Away and the Wizinvisible Hand

Lately I've been very quiet on the Realms of Despair for a variety of reasons. When I have been on I've mostly been working on making gold to finish dressing my druid. Grinding for gold isn't the most fun part of the game and I try to avoid it when I can. The catch is with the druid I want to put on it a Bone Helm of Ryuukoroshi, a Breastplate of the Ravager and a Shield of the Ravager which to make adds up to a total of 340 million gold coins.

To make gold the most obvious place is Mithril Hall - between the mobs in the gorge and Midas touch on the items from the mobs like Drizzt Do'Urden, Wulfgar and Bruenor Battlehammer you can make around 6-7 million coins per repop. With a few well placed characters in other areas you can almost double that amount. Either way though it is one of the less fun parts of the game. Sure you could run other mobs and sell the equipment to make the gold but in some ways running another mob and then finding someone to buy the item can be even more of a challenge.

Between repops while golding gives you plenty of time to think and read. One of my favourite sites to read is Imaginary Realities. It's something I'm adding a link to on this site after I finish writing this post. Imaginary Realities always has interesting ideas on how muds work and what others have done successfully. It is also a way for people to spread the news about what is great about their mud. Realms of Despair even gets a mention in an article by Richard “KaVir” Woolcock titled What Do I Do Now? where he says:

Of course the first step was to make sure newbies knew that a “what” command was available, as it’s only intuitive once you know about it! I therefore decided to borrow an idea from Realms of Despair, and include the information in the prompt:  

It would be great to see someone from Realms of Despair write something for Imaginary Realities and Kavir's article has some great ideas I'd love to expand on some other time. "1001 things to do in the Realms of Despair" is an idea I have for another blog post...  But for now I wanted to briefly discuss the RoD economy and some ideas from Griatch's article titled A Case for Bartering in Multiplayer Games

One of the most often debated topics by long time players of the game is about the economy - just look at these posts about it by Tharius and Xenapan. One common thread is that gold has little use. While it is needed for potions and repairs it has few uses besides creating some more expensive items and losing it in gold sinks like housing or the billions spent on the Festivus raffle. As a result other items are being used in the MUD's barter economy.

What I'd like to see is some sort of NPC that players can give items to and set a trade price for in gold or equipment. When another player makes an appropriate trade for the equipment up for grabs then they would hand over the items and store the trade until the first player logs back. This could make trades easier, safer, anonymous and save players from having to go to the effort of scripting trade bots. It would take some thought and coding skills but is doable.

On the plus side I think the Council of Elders does a pretty good job of staying out of the economy and letting the Wizinvisible Hand take care of things like inflation. One of my favourite things is when you realise that a particular player or group has a monopoly on a particular item through their skills/secrets/teamwork and encourages others to have a go with the attitude of "If they can do it so can we"

My other favourite part of the Realms of Despair economy is this:

>rent
There is no rent here.  Just save and quit.

Which is what I'm doing now.

Rest In Peace Zach

The Realms of Despair have been in a state of shock and grief following the tragic news of the death of one of the immortals of the game - Zach. The official statement from the administrators was:

(1033)  Kali         03/24/15     Zach
Recently we have learned that the Realms of Despair has lost one of its young bright stars.  The family of Zach has contacted the immortal staff, as well as some of his mortal friends who reached out, to let us know that Zach has passed away.  Zach has been a long and devoted player of the Realms. He recently joined the immortal ranks and inspired us with his enthusiasm and vigor for bringing positive changes to the game for his fellow players.  We are sad to have lost a vital player, but more importantly, we are
devastated to have lost a good friend and a good person.
As a tribute, we are promoting Zach to level 56, True Immortal, at which point we will move him to retired status.  As a lasting tribute, the pedagogic spirit in the Umbrageous Ruins will be renamed to the pedagogic spirit of Zach so that he may teach and train all those would follow his ways.  In this way his memory will live on.

I personally wasn't close to Zach though had interacted with him on a few occasions and had nothing bad to say about him. His loss has rippled throughout the realms touching players in different ways.

A week later and I am still in shock and confused about it.

I'll miss him and feel deeply for his family and friends.

Rest in peace Zach.

Arcane Awesomeness

Things have been going really well lately over in the Order of Arcanes. I've been happy about the amount of activity going on, new members joining and general atmosphere within the organisation. This was best highlighted by over the weekend where we all three of our leaders leading successful runs with a total of seven different members joining in on the action.

The first run was led by Ashetaka our number one to the Mountain of Lost Souls. The aim was to make some shades of light which are always in demand. It had been a long time since I had done that run myself. Despite a couple of minor hiccups along the way it went well. Using my barbarian I managed to get a couple of killing blows on some of the mobs along the way like this:

Your rending grip injures The bringer of Salvation!
The bringer of Salvation is DEAD!!
With the final blow, Salvation pulls back its mask revealing the face of a demon imp!
The bringer of Salvation says 'You have brought me the Salvation I sought.. '
The bringer of Salvation says 'Here is the Redemption you were looking for... May it bring you closer towards your own deliverance.'
From inside a gaping wound, Salvation pulls out a large object.
The bringer of Salvation gasps his last breath and blood spurts out of his mouth and ears.
The bringer of Salvation has no gold.
The corpse of The bringer of Salvation holds:
     (Glowing) the darkened robe of atonement
     (Humming) a small rune covered symbol named, 'Salvation'
     (Humming) a large rune covered symbol named, 'Redemption'

After this run I led a run to the Barren Wastes to make some leather leggings with a feathered trim. The first part of this involved killing the enormous winged beast. This part was easy enough though I learnt it is a lot easier with either 2 barbarians or 2 thieves instead of one of each. After this we did the giant serpent. Most of the run notes I see for this mob suggest using barbarians but I've found thieves work much better. With three thieves running in, circling and fleeing out when necessary we brought the serpent down with no problems. In the end the wanderer turned up and made the leggings:

You give a roll of feathery beige fabric to The wanderer.
The wanderer ruffles his fingers through the feathers of the roll of fabric, then bend the scaley hide back and forth, testing its pliability.
The wanderer thinks, 'Hmmmm.'
The wanderer says 'Shouldn't be too difficult.'

The wanderer takes a few unidentifiable tools from a small pouch and begins to work on the fabric and hide.

The wanderer tugs at the finished product, testing its durability.
The wanderer says 'Not bad, I'd think.  If you like feathers.'
The wanderer gives you leather leggings with a feathered trim.

Finaly Sarakin led a run to Salburg to kill the trees that pop parts to make the Ancient Breastplate of the Forest Wanderer.

These mobs aren't too hard to kill but they take a long time even with three people. In the end though we killed them without too much difficulty:

Your slash rips an old willow tree!
An old willow tree is DEAD!!
An old willow tree falls, cutting off a few of its whip-like branches.
An old willow tree catches its guts in its hands as they pour through its fatal
wound!
An old willow tree has no gold.
The corpse of An old willow tree holds:
     the curled branches of an old willow tree

I am far from the best run leader though I like to think of myself as competent at most of easy runs and a few of the harder ones. Between these three runs it reminded me of a few of my aims when leading a run:

• Make everyone feel welcome and that they are contributing
• Be extra prepared when leading. Have extra tank potions, ice girths, back up characters, etc.
• Be patient and explain everything - don't assume people have done this run before or remember all the details.
• Don't waste time. Once set get going and go so you don't get caught out with a repop hitting at a bad time.
• Know what to do when things go wrong (which they will at some point)

What I am most excited about though with these three runs is the potential of where we are going as an organisation and as individual players. We are improving our teamwork, learning each others strengths and weaknesses, building up knowledge of different areas and mobs while gaining some nifty new equipment. If we can keep this up we'll be able to run bigger mobs for better equipment in these areas. Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll be able to go after Khiurn'hai in the Mountain of Lost Souls, get the wanderer to make us some facestompers and dense wooden bracers in the Barren Wastes and maybe even take on Zharruk'din  in the City of Salburg.