View source for Volume Two Issue Three

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............./      /            THE LEGENDARY TIMES
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.../________________/     running on bashful.cc.utexas.edu 9999

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VOLUME TWO, ISSUE THREE                                  Jan. 9th, 1995
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                      ...:/:[ CONTENTS ]:\:...
                                 
                            MUD DOWN TIME                           
                       - the dates and times -
                      
                               UPDATES
                      -   Phoenicians is in!  -
                      -  clan roster command  -
                      - lots of auction fixes -
                      -    other bugs fixes   -
                      
                              ARTICLES
                  - MudGate and Pick of the Week -

                            SOCIAL ITEMS
           -              Let's have a play              -
           -        Mercenary's side of the story        -
           -             Eretz the Master Bard           -
           -         Rusalka gets another verse...       -
           -      ...and Bart sets off for Uzbekistan    -
           
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                               MUD DOWN TIME
                               
All the University of Texas public access machines are going down between
8am January 11th and 5pm January 13th. This means LegendMUD will be down as
well; there's nothing we can do about it.

We've had experience with UT 'downtimes' before and they just about always
run over schedule as well. Don't panic if you can't connect to the mud at
5:30 on Friday; or for that matter on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. We'll be
back up as soon as we can and will of course notify you via the LT.

We are working on the new site, but unfortunately, a needed piece of software
does not arrive until Friday. After it arrives there will still be coding
and testing to be done--and unless everything goes PERFECTLY we will not be
able to do said testing while UT is down.

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                   NEW SMALL AREA ADDITION: PHOENICIANS
                   
Folk who explore the Ancient Mediterranean may find that there are a few
new rooms to explore. The mini-area of the Phoenicians was added by
Charity in order to provide a link across the Atlantic to the heretofore
rather isolated are of Nazca and the Aztecs.

The Phoenicians were an ancient trading people based in the region of
present-day Lebanon. We know rather little about them, but credit them
with a great deal, including the spread of the Roman alphabet. You'll
find a few port rooms in the Mediterranean as well as a route across the
Atlantic to Central America. Note that the way in one direction may not
be the same as the way in the other direction! Look carefully and keep
an eye out for monsters of the deep.

There is also a HELP PHOENICIANS in with basic historical information.

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                         CLAN ROSTER COMMAND
                              
Ganelon went on a coding jag, and the result is that we will soon have a
clan roster command for clanned individuals. We already generated a roster
with the early (not yet integrated to the mud) version, and found that
the currently biggest clans are without a doubt the Order of the Scroll
followed by the Hermetics. We hope to have the player-usable roster command
done soon, but we don't know if we can install it before the mud down time.

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                           OTHER BUG FIXES
                           
There have been too many of these for me to keep track of them all, but
I'll give it a shot.

* Shopkeepers in the Orkneys and in London and in Bengal now eat their
inventory upon death.

* All the shopkeepers who eat inventory no longer eat their gold too.

* We think we fixed the problem in Klein and a few other places with mobs
not waiting long enough after a skill usage in combat.

* You don't drown while flying over water anymore.

* a bunch of bugs were fixed in auction, including crashing bugs from
losing link while auctioning an item, and several other things.

I'm sure there have been more, but I don't remember them all. :)

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                      MUDGATE AND PICK OF THE WEEK
                        
A few players were startled by the number of mudlist admins who stopped by
Legend recently. We're not doing a publicity push, especially given the
fact that we're going down in a day or two, but two small opportunities
presented themselves.

One was just a correction to Axl's MudList, which was still listing us at
the old moraff.austin.com address. I dropped him an email and he showed
up to visit. Axl beta-tested for us waaay back before we opened to the Net.

The other visitor was a bit more startling to all of us. The Electronic
Newsstand is a commercial enterprise designed to sell the content of magazines
via the Internet via Gopher. Gophering to enews.com lets you browse through
their selection and order, charging it to your credit card. A recent new
feature added by the Newsstand is "MudGate." This is a menu list of muds
divided into categories. Choose a mud from the menu and you will be
automatically connected to the mud via raw telnet. There's no charge for this
service--and the nicest thing about it is that it gives not just the address
but also descriptions of the mud written by the admins of the mud. Plans for
future expansion include reviews of various muds written by the administrators
of MudGate.

MudGate also selects certain muds as 'Picks of the Week.' I'm glad to say
that the MudGate admin popped onto Legend, ended up staying for an hour and
a half, got a complete tour, selected us as Pick of the Week, created an
entirely new category on his list for us, and decided to play here as well.
This is a nice compliment, considering this fellow has visited 50 muds in the
last three days.

-Ptah

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Quite a soap opera developed on the chat channel recently... here are
highlights of an event that most of us haven not yet quite figured out:

THE BARD, THE CHAMPION, THE BATTLE-MAID, AND HER LOVER (highlights)

Dramatis Personae:
LEILETH, rarely-seen battle-maiden, championed by Greyscot
GREYSCOT, bard and champion of Leileth, former champion of Dusty
DUSTY, bard currently championed by Byron
RUSALKA, bystander
PTAH, bystander
THE CHAMPION, to be revealed later

ACT ONE, SCENE ONE: ACCUSATIONS

 Dusty: Hello Leileth! I have your Greyscot here, unconscious...
 Leileth: Ah hah! That unfaithful scum! *glare*
 Leileth: heard from a close friend that Greyscot has been dallying...and
        not being faithful to his lady patron
 Dusty: Patroness? One who has not been around to receive his favors?
 Greyscot: Your close friend lies then. If our loves burns cold, it is
        not because of anyone else but you and me.
 Leileth: I do not tolerate unfaithful champions...ah hah! you admit your
        infidelity!
 Greyscot: I have never been unfaithful to you.
 Leileth: What of the mysterious woman...with whom you were seen with?
 Leileth: Whose name I will not mention, that it merely starts with a
        'G'...
 Greyscot: Don't even excuses Leileth. Look here, I toss your ribbons
        into the dust!
 Greyscot: And may they remain there

ACT ONE, SCENE TWO: THE CHALLENGE

 Greyscot: So this mysterious woman! Does she walk anywhere on this earth
        other than in the twisted corridors of your dark mind?
 Leileth: Ah, but who knows, but the other lady? Pity the poor
        lass...under the delusion that here is a fine, faithful gentleman...
 Leileth: ...when, in reality, lurks a devious knave.
 Dusty: devious knaves do it around corners

ACT ONE, SCENE THREE: THE PLOT THICKENS

 Leileth: peers carefully at Dusty's history...
 Dusty: A champion lives in cruel chastity, loving from afar, eventually
        marrying a woman he cannot love (cf. Lancelot and Guenevere and
        whatsername)
 Dusty: Who me? Oh, someone who lost HER champion Greyscot to a certain
        mysterious lady whose name starts with an L
 Hunter_Rose: Eek!  This plot is getting too heavy for me...
 Dusty: Sanquela died rather than face life losing to Greyscot as my
        champion... then you came along and stole Greyscot away
 Leileth: Did I seek him? I was shocked myself to hear of his change of
        heart.  But then, to see him now, it is not a surprise...
 Leileth: Such little constancy.
 Dusty: I think that a barefaced hussy with a name too much like Lilith's
        ought to keep her accusations down in the back of her throat where
        she keeps her other pet loves

ACT TWO, SCENE ONE: THE COUNTERATTACKS

 Dusty: I have ever known Greyscot to be honorable, brave, loyal, and a
        better knight than the knights themselves
 Dusty: not that the latter says much
 Hunter_Rose: Well that wouldn't be hard to accomplish...
 Dusty: Whereas of YOU all I have heard is, "No, I may not be your
        champion, kiss your hand, carry your token, because I am sworn to
        Leileth."
 Leileth: Sworn to me?! Aye, in empty words and gestures...
 Rusalka: i think i'm lost
 Rusalka: this is too complicated for me

ACT TWO, SCENE TWO: SOME BACKSTORY

 Dusty: Greyscot was once going to be my champion... I was not around...
        he championed Leileth... she vanished but he remained loyal to her...
        now she accuses him of infidelity with a woman whose name starts
        with "G"
 Leileth: Ah, but my dear bard, you do not understand...that I did not
        seek out his loyalty...
 Dusty: Worse yet, you spurned him?
 Leileth: He had designs on refusing you from the start.

INTERLUDE ONE

 Rusalka: hi ptah
 Ptah: I am NOT getting into this Russie, don't even ask
 Rusalka: getting into what, ptah?
 Dusty: Let it be known that Leileth of the absent heart, she who
        accepted the love freely given of Greyscot the bard, has now turned
        her heart from him, closed her doors, and spurned his honorably
        given affection
 Ptah: Umm, whatever catfight is going on?
 Rusalka: i am not in it
 Dusty: Are you calling me a cat, Ptah?
 Greyscot: I think that about says it, Leileth.
 Dusty: I would have thought a more canine appellation fit better...
 Ptah: I said, I am not getting into this. :)

INTERLUDE TWO

 Rusalka: i have other affairs
 Dusty: Careful, Rusalka, Leileth might think that some of those affairs
        are with her men *eyeroll*
 Rusalka: *smile* i don't think they've met

ACT THREE, SCENE ONE: SEEKING A CHAMPION

 Dusty: Leileth, you impugn the honor of an honorable man. Select a
        champion to meet him on the field, or admit your cause has no merit
 Dusty: or admit that you cannot find a single person of true worth to
        represent you on the field.
 Greyscot: It would be a shame to have another person led to distress
        and doom by leileth, but if she sends a champion forth, I will battle
        him.
 Leileth: I fear that my champion would be just too  pleased to answer
        the challenge.
 Greyscot: And he can tie her muddy and dog-chewed ribbons to his little
        lance.
 Leileth: His breeding prevents him from lowering himself to such
        affairs.
 Greyscot: Or maybe it's the arthritis in his old back..
 Dusty: Your champion's breeding prevents him from defending the word of
        a so-called lady in honorable combat, eh? What a shame.
 Dusty: Tell me, is this breeding identifiable by AKC registration? Filed
        under 'cur'?
 Greyscot: Hmm, I think that breed is called 'coward'
 Leileth: He spits on the like....
 Dusty: Drools too
 Dusty: they have hopes he can be cured i suppose

ACT THREE, SCENE TWO: DUSTY'S SATIRE

 Dusty: In honor of Leileth...
 Leileth: peers at Dusty
 Dusty: "A pity, a shame, your now-tarnished name"
 Dusty: "Can't be correctly defended;"
 Dusty: "You say you're abandoned, and even slandered"
 Dusty: "And fences just cannot be mended"
 Dusty: "Yet you will not step forth or send champion on horse"
 Dusty: "To tilt at the lists for your honor?"
 Dusty: "Perhaps you should settle for HAVING no mettle"
 Dusty: "And slink away, a doxy... or commoner. :P"
 Dusty: now that that is said, I must say, Greyscot, publicly... you
        really oughtn't to have ditched ME in the first place

ACT THREE, SCENE THREE: LEILETH SCORES A POINT

 Leileth: And you still support such a person, dear bard, admitting him
        spurning your patronage for another?  After successfully eliminating
        the loyal Sanquela?
 Dusty: He did not eliminate Sanquela... Sanquela jumped off a cliff.
 Leileth: Such cruelty...to drive such a brave warrior to such means...
        *sigh*
 Dusty: Greyscot never became my official champion after that incident,
        so he did me no wrong technically when he championed you. Though I
        whapped him good for his lack of good taste.
 Dusty: Of course, men can't really ever be trusted to pick the right
        woman... *sigh*
 Leileth: Ah, and his lack of good taste extends to all the woman he has
        wooed?

ACT THREE, SCENE FOUR: THE CHAMPION REVEALED AND A PARTING SHOT

 Dusty: perhaps I defend the wrong side
 Dusty: After all, Leileth has every right to be stereotypical and change
        her mind and dump Greyscot as cruelly as possible right? Isn't that
        what they say women do? *eyeroll*
 Dusty: Put a name on the table, put a champion in the lists, make a
        case, but stop hurling baseless accusations, Leileth. A sharp tongue
        without anything behind it justs gets you in trouble.
 Dusty: *I* should know! *hang*
 Leileth: Sharp words from a sharp bard *chuckle* Ah, you force me to
        show my hand...
 Dusty: That the one with crossed fingers behind your back?
 Leileth: I call forth my champion...
 Leileth: Faithful, loyal, and true...
 Leileth: ...who has greatly demonstrated his worth and sense of honor on
        the field of battle...
 Leileth: Faithful follower and devoted defender of my battle sister...
 Dusty: Are you going to name this champion, Leileth, or are you having
        trouble getting him to come out from behind (under?) your skirts?
 Leileth: I bring forth the valiant Hunter_Rose.
 Rusalka: he's taken
 Greyscot: *cheer* Now give me 15 levels
 Greyscot: ..so I can fight ;)
 Dusty: How does Katya feel about this? *thinks deeply*
 Leileth: As sisters in battle, I have Katya's permission to have
        Hunter_Rose act as my champion. :)
 Greyscot: My former lady makes another empty gesture.
 Hunter_Rose: Empty gestures?  Speak with your own.
 Greyscot: COme attack me then.
 Hunter_Rose: I refuse until you gain a little more manhood.
 Greyscot: Ah, old man, you already teeter into old age. Can you even
        lift your lance?
 Dusty: I thought Katya lifted it for him. *giggle*
 Hunter_Rose: Dusty, you of all should be more respectable to your
        elders...
 Hunter_Rose: Perhaps that is why you tend to like immature men...

CURTAIN

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The following letter arrived at the Legendary Times offices, signed by
Mercenary. It seems to be a reply to Tigger's statement published last
issue...

"Oft in my Travels have I been maligned, persecuted -- call it what ye will.
Rare are my opportunities to redress these attacks, but this is
one of them: and so, I would correct some of the 'knight' tigger's
misinformation.

"First, a point of clarification, aye. Contrary to her baseless assertions,
I was not 'grouped' with Revenant. I was passing through that room, and did
stop to pass greetings to my sometimes-employer, as I do with all of my
former employers. The gods of link death enthralled the both of us, a
matter noted by other passer-bys who saw us. The bold tigger herself
admitted that she did not come to bengal until she thought I would be
absent, aye, as witnessed by the oracular 'who.'  She stumbled
across me, went to another room to play her strategy, then came back and
slew me while I was link dead. Ah! The bravery, the sheer tactical prowess to
execute such a cunning and heroic attack on a link-dead opponant. I lift my
mug to ye, brave tigger.

"And contrary to the customs (not rules) of the land, she did take ALL of my
equipment, and slew me without warning when I came back (foolishly) thrice.
Not that a warning was needed after the first, aye, but I had hopes that I
would be allowed to regain some of my equipment.

"She lies of the truce as well. It was I who offered and brokered the
negotiation of peace. There is no profit in wanton bloodshed, only sorrow,
the kind visited upon my own humble family - but that is another story. So
I offered to make peace at a price which would in some manner compensate
me for the loss of priceless equipment. The knights themselves say that
to slay one while link-dead is cowardly and unbecoming of a knight, yet they
stand by tigger's claim that she saw it not in two trips through our room,
though others did not miss it.  When it became clear they could not meet my
demands, and would not return the most precious of my goods, I broke off the
truce - NOTIFYING them first, giving even brave tigger ample time to prepare.
Tigger has had ample opportunity to keep the peace, but remains unrepentant
of her noble attack.

"And shame on her for daring to call Mercenary cowardly, who attacked her in
the presence of her guildmaster - Khelleck - and a mage, Sansaria. Perhaps,
judging from her descriptions of her own travails, she has mistaken
bravery for cowardice, and cowardice for bravery.

"To those of you who would have equipment I urge you to peruse what brave
tigger wears. That which I do not wish for myself I shall be happy to sell
in way of recouping some of my expenses in this endeavor.

"My salute to brave tigger! May you die as you have lived."

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A clarification and apology is necessary. It was pointed out that this
newsletter has not publicly acknowledged the fast that Eretz, Master Bard,
is now in fact the Guildmaster of the Order of the Scroll. He's enacting
several drastic re-organizations among the bards, and indeed the clan seems
to be currently the most active and 'together' of all those on Legend. Under
his stewardship they have acquired more members than any other clan. Keep
an eye on this fellow, he seems to have big plans.

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Eretz also seems a bit upset at the characterization of the bards in last
issue, pointing out that Bart did not approach him as leader directly in
order to organize the commission of verses for Rusalka. Here's Eretz's
contribution to the ever-growing body of literature about the Hermetic
Guildmistress...

            Rusalka, fair maiden, was frustrated then,
            and so in retreat to her Russian home's fen,
            to lure the wayward to a watery death,
            to ask them for answers until their last breath.

            Disappointed in love, and lost from her tribe,
            of which nothing remained. No trace and no scribe,
            could recall their location or even their name,
            no word of the place from where she came.

            But thanks only to magic then did her life start,
            when she met her great hero and devoted love, Bart.
            He went to the east, the north and the west,
            in search of her past, in pursuit of his quest.

            Through adventure and pain, by fight and by barter,
            he discovered the secret of her ancestry: Tartar.
            Of the noblest house of the Khazar clan,
            in the southernmost part of far Uzbekistan.

            With past explained, true love revealed--
            just as readied for seeds, the feeled.
            Rusalka was ready to be gowned. And wed.
            Likewise may all your worries be shed.

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/

...As for Bart--well, he's set off on his quest to find the origins of the
tribe mentioned in Eretz's poem. We hope to see him maybe by next week...

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 Legendary Times is put out by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all
 replies/additions to rkoster3@ua1ix.ua.edu for inclusion in the next  
 edition. We, however, reserve the right to moderate this discussion,
and may object to some submissions. If you feel we have wrongly omitted 
 one of your messages, please talk to either Kaige or Ptah online or 
 through EMail and see if we did indeed receive it in the first place.
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