Volume Two Issue Thirty-Three
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............./ / THE LEGENDARY TIMES
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..../ /_/..\______/./_____/./__/.../__/./_______/ MUD
.../________________/ running on mud.aus.sig.net 9999
199.1.78.16 9999
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http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/johnmil/legend/legend.html
http://alcuin.plymouth.edu/~ed/legend.html
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VOLUME TWO, ISSUE THIRTY-THREE September 25, 1995
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...:/:[ CONTENTS ]:\:...
*PLAYER KILLING-CLAN UPDATE*
*ARTICLES*
-Malorn's Web Page-
*ANNOUNCEMENTS*
-Player Killing Workshop-
-Fund Drive Update-
*SOCIAL EVENTS*
-Clan Updates-
-An Announcement-
-Another Legendary Poem-
-Bay's Wanderings-
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Please send your responses to articles to the Legendary Times address
at [email protected]. Letters to the editor are welcomed.
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****NOTICE TO ALL CLANNED CHARACTERS****
In light of recent discussions on the LDL, the gods have decided to make
the following offer to all clanned players: if you clanned for reasons
other than pkill, and are not comfortable participating in pkill, we will
unclan your character for you. This offer is good for two weeks only - until
OCTOBER 9. This offer is intended only for people who realized belatedly
that they were in over their heads, and the goal is to ensure that after
October 9th the only people who are pkill-enabled will be people who
genuinely want to participate in pkill. We hope that this will eliminate
the worries about whether someone's feelings will get hurt if you
attack them, and will ensure that everyone who is allowed to take part in
pkill thinks that pkill is fun. Please do not try using this offer in
order to unclan a character who has been active in pkill - the goal is to
benefit players like you by removing pacifists from the pkill field.
If you get excessively upset about being pkilled, or joined a clan so you
could hang out with your friends, or get the benefits of shared knowledge,
or take part in roleplaying, you should consider the following:
1) Clans are for pkill. Anyone who is in a pk-enabled clan or is a rogue
has agreed to take part in pkill as victim, aggressor, or both. If you
aren't comfortable with this, unclan.
2) If you like roleplaying, there are groups other than the pkill clans
which roleplay. Lirra runs the Wandering Mage Rescue Alliance, One has
tried to stir up interest in a non-Order-of-the-Scroll bardic group, or
feel free to start your own group of roleplayers. You can even form a
one-person 'clan' if you want - Pug is the only known member of 'Clan Pug'
for instance. You can share information, group together, choose a place
like a room of der Phoenix, Sentnay's food stand, or the soon-to-be-installed
Roman baths, to have meetings in or hang out together. If you want to
participate in a social group like this, YOU DON'T NEED TO BE PK-ENABLED!
3) As this offer is meant to give peaceful characters a way to gracefully
remove themselves from the pkill playing field, any character who chooses
to unclan cannot later clan that character. If you play a more aggressive
character later, that character is not barred from pkill, but anyone who
chooses to unclan at this point is making a lifelong decision for that
character (just as clanning the character originally was supposed to be,
but owell. everyone makes mistakes sometimes).
4) After October 9th, you will have absolutely no recourse to the gods if
you get dragged into a pkill situation and are unhappy about it. Either
decide to unclan now, or else decide that you will learn to enjoy taking
part in pkill.
As a final note, those of you who get the LDL will have heard the comments
to the effect that pkill isn't broken, and the simultaneous suggestions
of what can be done to fix it. Ensuring that the only people who are pkill
enabled are people who want to take part in pkill will go a long way towards
proving the first statement correct. If you aren't enthusiastic about the
idea of other players being able to kill your character, or you being able
to kill their character, now is your chance to get out of the pkill system
without having to retire a cherished character. I strongly urge anyone
who doesn't like pkill to take us up on this offer.
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* * * NEW CLAN/PK POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT * * *
Do you have a level 50 character?
Is your lvl 50 char clanned, but bored?
Do you have the stamina to attain immort-level experience?
If so, you may be able to unclan your character without having to retire.
>From now on, any clanned character who attains immort-level experience
will be able to unclan that character without retiring it. But beware -
your enemies may decide to foil your ambitions by making a special effort
to kill you as you endeavor to collect the requisite experience.
You must be at or above immort-level xp at the time you talk to a god
about being unclanned.
This new policy is offered solely as a reward to people who have made the
extraordinary effort to collect such a huge amount of experience. It has
no relationship to any other discussions of clanning or pkill.
*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*
CODE UPDATES
* Mobs that only occasionally try to bite or kick you, will only now give
messages when they actually try to perform that attack type. Before
the fix, it looked like they were always getting double or triple
attacks, because 'blocked' type messages showed up regardless
* Recall Tag now works like OOC in that it drops you back to wherever you
started from when you joined the game (in other words, the angel will
send you back to where you were before instead of to a designated home
town).
* Various reported bugs have been fixed in Egypt.
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MALORN'S WEB PAGE
In the past several weeks, Malorn has spent many hours creating a
"non-official" Web Site for Legend (as many of you already know
Arkenstone had previously created a web page for us which is alive and
well :). The result is a tremendous resource for LegendMud players,
newbies and veteran alike.
The page has four main links: About Legend, Legendary Times Index, About
the Immortals, and Connecting Directly. As one might guess, choosing the
latter provides a direct link to Legend, while clicking on the Index
takes you to the Legendary Times archive on Arkenstone's page. The "About
Legend" link is without doubt the largest. From it, you can link to the
OTS Newbie Guide and information about the clan system, the perils of
cheating (and what we regard as cheating), and the enhancements
that make LegendMUD unique (including our skills system and roleplaying).
There is also a link to the Area Page, through which you can get oodles of
information about the historical backgrounds of the areas in Legend (as well
as a few general pointers about what to expect in them). In the future,
we'll also be updating and adding the helpfiles (the non skill and spell
ones that is) to that the About Legend link.
Finally (but certainly not LEAST) is the link to the Immortals' pages,
where you can find out such useful things as where Fionn's RL hometown is,
where the IMPs went to college, and what Bart's opera schedule for the
next several weeks is (you never know what may come up in a trivia
contest :).
To reach Malorn's page, open a connection on your web browser to
http://alcuin.plymouth.edu/~ed/legend.html. While you're browsing, also
check out Arkenstone's page. As well as the before mentioned Legendary
Times Archive, it also has several pictures of RL legendary folk. Its
address is http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/johnmil/legend/legend.html.
Malorn notes that although the address for his page will soon be moving,
he'll have a jumper page at the original site so that you'll still be able
to find it even if you havn't gotten the new address.
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The Mud Connector designated LegendMUD as one of their top five nominees
for the Mud of the Month of September. Although JediMUD outdid us to win
that top stop, it's still an honor for us to have been nominated :)
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PLAYER KILLING WORKSHOP
A Player Killing workshop will be held on Tuesday, October 3, at 9 PM
EST, in the OOC. Mercenary has graciously agreed to share some p-kill
strategy; all other players who wish to share and/or discuss strategy
are welcomed to do so! We strongly advise that anyone who is pk-enabled
but inexperienced in pkilling or pkill strategy should plan to attend
(in fact, GMs may wish to make this a mandatory event). This workshop
should be of great help to all of you who decide you want to remain
clanned, or for those who want to attend to decide if remaining clanned
is really for them. Remember, you will have the opportunity to unclan
for several days after this event, so feel free to explore all your
options before making that decision.
********************
FUND DRIVE UPDATE
It turns out that RAM prices were more expensive than we expected them to
be. Between that the site fees for the first six months, plus what we
already owed Sadist, we still lack about $400. Yes, we are now open on the
new site, but we do still need pledges and donations :) (Many thanks to
the players who have already made a sizable dent in our "debt"!!!)
We suggest that those who have the money burning a hole in their pocket
go ahead and send the checks directly to the following address and we
will get the letters out to them as soon as we can, perhaps even crossing
in the mail.
This is the address to send donations to:
(make checks payable to Raphael and Kristen Koster)
Raph and Kristen Koster
12603 Rhea Ct.
Austin, TX 78727
If you are an overseas donor who cannot write a check in US Dollars,
please email them at [email protected].
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/ \
o O | Wonder what folks are |
`\|||/ | doing over at LegendMud?|
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CLAN NEWS
Things reached a climax in the Kiera VS Secretives VS Morrigens War when
Kiera permakilled Isobel, a stalwart Morrigen. Although Isobel reappeared
briefly for another round at the wheel, she soon met a dragon that she
couldn't handle and departed Legend for good. THEN, as if things wern't
already too exciting, Kiera and Bay_el-lor (that Secretive GM type) duked it
out in a final battle from which only one could return. After numerous
deaths on both sides, Kiera emerged the victor, and Bay_el-lor faded into
Legend's memory....For the record, Kiera explained to our Legendary Times
correspondant that she aimed for a permanent resolution to the conflict
between herself and the Secretives not so much because of earlier attempts
to off her as because of certain items she had lost from her corpse in the
past.
These deaths, as well as earlier attempts to permakill individuals such
as Kiera, have raised numerous questions among clanned characters about
the ethics of permakilling. Those who wish to discuss this issue further
are directed to the LDL forum, as well as to roleplay their reactions.
In other clan news, Augustus recently killed first Dominic, the
knightly GM, and then Eretz, the OTS GM. One wonders if this is a
trend....Augustus also got involved in some scuffles with Hermetics,
including Jondalar, Xo, and CLeo.
Yukio recently backstabbed Mitra over allegations of "flirting" with
Tempus (apparently Yukio felt that neither was giving her sufficient
attention). Despite the surprise attack, Mitra managed to kill Yukio and
get her back for calling Mitra a "harlot."
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An Announcement
The following took place on the eve of the LT's going to press.....:
The Mercenary walked in and nodded politely to his audience. "I have a brief
announcement to make," he said. Zorkus helpfully called out "Speak Merc!"
The Mercenary glanced at his notes and continued "I'm pleased to announce
that I have recently accepted overlordship of the Knights of Legend."
The reactions of the crowd were various. Forrest exclaimed "goodness!"
and Sabella said "wow" while Kiera and Magda snickered.
"Aye, under my patient tutelage and benevolent leadership, they shall
flourish" The Mercenary explained. Yukio rolled her eyes and Mitra noted
"that may take a bit...."
"Dominic shall remain the GM of the clan, and I shall leave most of the
daily operations to him" The Mercenary carefully noted. Bureaucratic
procedures were greatly bothersome to him, especially when there was a
profit to be made elsewhere. Calli wondered if the Knights were yet aware
of The Mercenary's plans and an invisible someone asked how much the
Knights were paying The Mercenary for his generousity. "Well that's noble
of ya" commented Kiera.
".... and as to what, if anything, they pay, 'tis none of your
concern" answered The Mercenary. He looked back to his notes and continued.
"For the time being, the knights fall under my protection until further
notice." Malorn was confused. "Merc.... knight gm?! huh?!" he sputtered.
"My thanks for your time, aye," The Mercenary told his audience.
"I repeat," he proclaimed, "I am *overlord* of the Knights" He also
explained that he preferred to be addressed as "Overlord."
"Mercenary," Yukio asked, "Could you please instruct your knights to look at
mobs to see if they are wounded before attacking them?"
"Certes they behave within tolerances of the law. To do otherwise is
death," The Mercenary explained.
Malorn also had a question. "So if i touch one of them you attack me?,"
he queried. "If ye touch one of them without my permission, aye," The
Mercenary assured him, "for the time being."
"The leadership situation still needs to be clarified, and I would have
no distractions," The Mercenary explained.
Kiera laughed and shouted "Ya mean as overlord ya might give permission to
slaughter them?" She carefully polished her dagger. "I might indeed,
aye," answered The Mercenary. When Malorn asked how much it would cost to
slaughter Knights, The Mercenary informed him that he would have to be
more specific.
After a certain amount of discussion over why The Mercenary was
establishing himself as Knightly Overlord and how much money he must expect
to make from it, The Mercenary politely nodded and departed. But the
night was not yet over. Ere it finished, Gail, a Knight of Legend fell to
The Mercenary's dagger, having attacked him to show her defiance of his
overlordship. One can only wonder how Sir Dominic and the rest of the
Knights will respond to The Mercenary's plans...
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
This month marks the first wedding anniversary of Hunter Rose and Katya.
As many of you may recall, their wedding, held in the misty moors of
Ireland, was the very first in LegendMUD history! Be sure to congratulate
them if you see them around!
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Another Legendary Poem
We recently received the following from Penthus:
Not to be outdone by Limerick, I've written a few Legendary Tunes.
The first is called "A Shogun Named Penthus," to the tune of "A Shogun
Named Marcus," by Clutch.
If you thought it was boring on Carnage
Then come out here for a day
And by the way the name's Penthus
But if you like you can call me Sensei
Well Mercenary's in the pigsty
And Kiera's in the shack
And ya better believe that i'll hold 'em there
Till the imps they pay me back.
Wire-rim Spectacles
Wormtooth, pungent
Bash, kick, and headbutt
Oh my lord!
Backstabbing, corpse looting
Double-crosses, forceclanning
Cross-character romance
Bless my soul!
Hari Kari and permadeath
Come dancin' with me
Hari Kari and permadeath
Won't ya come dancin' with me?
Yes I'm a LegendMUD samurai
And a Pkiller nonetheless
Yes I'm a LegendMUD samurai
And I can read your mind
Check it out I'm like a buzzbomb
Yes I'm a LegendMUD samurai
So bebopballoobopawopshamboo
And a vial of filmy liquid if I got to.
Future songs to follow as i come up with them, and as long as Rus keeps
printing them ;-). Like Limerick, i'll accept requests for songs about
specific people, or twistings of favorite songs (i reserve the right to
refuse songs based on bad musical taste :-).
[Editor's Note: If I get flooded with poems, I may get more selective
(that is, I won't publish every poem from every player). However, all
budding poets are encouraged to submit the fruits of their word
processors.]
*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*
Wiley the Mage announces that he is available to calm and cure for groups
of intrepid warrior types who care to let him tag along...Those
interested should send him a tell.
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This piece was submitted to the LT offices shortly before Bay_el-lor's
untimely demise.
Bay's Wanderings
I was buzzing out of Casablanca the other day (sooner or later,
everyone leaves Casablanca) and made a wrong turn in the desert . . . I
got distracted by something shiny on the horizon and lost my sense of
direction and suddenly I wasn't where I wanted to be.
I sometimes think there must be about a million acres of desert
I've never explored, since I'm always heading some_where_ and the only
way to explore the desert is to not be going anywhere in particular. I
wandered a while, and eventually, becoming bored by the monotony of it
all, sat down to create some water and build some sand castles (what
else would you do as a create-mage in the desert?). As I was digging
the moat around my 1/42 scale model of the Tower of London, I came upon
a foot in the sand. Well, not a foot ..a foot bone ... and the foot
bone was connected to a leg bone, and the leg bone was connected to a
thigh bone, and the thigh bone was connected to a hip bone, and the hip
bone was connected to a back bone, and the back bone was connected to a
back pack. I don't know if there was a head, because what I found in
the backpack stopped me right there . . . a carefully preserved
blue-jacketed book, wrapped in oilskin. The book proved to be a Chinese
pillow book, but more interesting than the drawings was what was written
in the margins. Apparently the traveller who's bones I'd found had kept
a diary on the only blank paper he or she had . . . the margins of an
existing book. I turned my back to the sandcastle and began to read.
Most of what I found in the book I knew already ...keys to
quests, maps to towns, survival tips and strategies. But some of the
writings were about the world and the nature of our place in it. These
words have been troubling me greatly of late, so I reproduce them for
you here.
***
Last week J. and I discovered something marvelous--we cannot
really die. We were crossing the desert outside the city of Agrabah and
J. was bitten by a cobra. He died almost immediately . . . and killing
the snake was of little comfort to me. I sat down to mourn over the
corpse of my friend since childhood. The enormity of my loss had hardly
begun to strike me when he appeared, living and quite naked beside me.
I think he was as startled by his corpse as I was by his appearance. He
explained that he had just awoken in the Agrabah inn and come to find
me. Suddenly, in a flash, everything was clear to me . . . as many
times as I've killed that cackling child in Agrabah, there always seems
to be another almost identical one. I had long thought that, urchins
being urchins, they all just looked alike. But what if they, like J.,
were coming back from the dead?
Since then, we have killed one-another a half-dozen times and
always reappeared naked in an inn. We are in some strange way immortal.
What can this possibly mean?
***
J. and I have long known that we are different from many of the
people in the world. The smith in Tara, for instance, seems never to
leave his forge. Many who we meet have little or no linguistic skill,
no ability to communicate or operate outside of a narrow sphere of
activity, while J. and I wander the world at will. Lately we have found
others like ourselves. They belong to organizations of like individuals
they call "clans," and they kill one-another for sport. The world, it
seems, is divided between those of us who, human, wander the world at
will, and those nearly machine people who do not. How did such I world
come to be? I have a memory that nags at the edge of my consciousness
that tells me this is not how the world always was.
***
Horror! Horror! There are others, not machine, not human.
Today I heard a voice that spoke through the whole world at once, a form
that appeared from nothing, that created from nothing without casting a
spell, that cackled at my puny attempts to harm it. Gods? Can there be
gods that are to us as we are to the machine people?
***
There are gods, many, perhaps more than we know. They roam the
world and they are invulnerable to us. I do not know their purposes.
Perhaps, like us, they have different purposes among them, but I fear
such great power, I mistrust it.
Worse, now, I have learned that sometimes they take mortal form
and walk among us, meddling in our affairs, joining our clans, attacking
and killing us with skills and strategies born of more experience than
any human might carry. J. and I call them gods' pawns, or godlings, or,
as I prefer, gosslings--for they cackle like geese and are prying-pecking
everywhere at once.
There is a sort of obscene circularity to it all--as the machine
people are to us, so are we to the gosslings and their gods. But we are
not machine people. This cannot be right. I have decided to go into
the desert and fast until I understand this better. Perhaps I never
will. But i must try.
***
That's the last entry. The author apparently never recorded any answer
from the desert, although I do not know if he/she died on that
excursion, before it, or much later. I like to think that, at some
point, this traveller too built a sandcastle, that building a sand
castle might help put the world in perspective.
Anyway, I do not suppose there's anything new in the above entries, save
the record of an awakening to the workings of the world. Nevertheless,
the writings trouble me. I have resolved to go into the desert to seek
an answer myself.
Bay
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Errata: Due to the Editor's oversight, the subject line of the last
Legendary Times read "Issue 31" instead of "Issue 32" (in other words,
those of you who save LT's will find that you have two "Issue 31's." The
subject line of the LT on the FTP site has been corrected.
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Legendary Times is put out by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all
replies/additions to to our address at [email protected] 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 Rusalka online or
through EMail and see if she did indeed receive it in the first place.
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