Last Dynasty - A Solclaim Community

Heart of Woe

First, there is surprise.

The wall crumbled inward pinning Jarvis under a mound of earth and the living walls of the Hive. Olthoi swarmed through the gaping hole into the tunnels, shredding his companions in a matter of seconds. Jarvis struggled to reach his sword, but it lay just out of his grasp.

"Arikas, did you say that there were students within the halls?"

"Yes, Lord Master Asheron, several."

Asheron acknowledged the response with a nod of his head, placing the orb back onto the silken pillow and bringing his hand to his chin.

Second, there is pain.

An Olthoi stepped onto the rubble that pinned Jarvis' legs. Jarvis bit back a scream, but could hold it no longer as the Olthoi lowered its eyes to meet his. It was watching him, searching his face for a sign of understanding. Finding none, it hopped on the rubble and the man screamed again. A long pincer stretched from the Olthoi's back and gently touched the side of Jarvis' face. Jarvis was quivering now in a mixture of fear and pain.

Third, there is acceptance.

Jarvis resigned himself to death. "The pain will end soon," he repeated over and over in his head, as a pincer thrust itself through Jarvis' right shoulder and another pierced his left shoulder. The Olthoi pulled Jarvis from the rubble, screaming but unable to struggle. As the man screamed, the Olthoi mocked him with its own piercing whine.

"Then it is decided?" Elysa asked Lord Kresovus and Aun Hareltah.

"Our Xuta's shall come together and dance in unison. It is agreed." Hareltah responded.

"The Lugians of Linvak shall also come together at this great junction and support the common cause. Yet I must state that if trespasses continue on our lands, we will continue to fight." Kresovus spoke calmly and clearly without a trace of malice.

Elysa nodded and the three prepared to speak to their people.

Last, there is realization…

Jaleh al-Thani stood and smiled broadly as he clapped his guest on the shoulder.

"It has been far too long since last our paths crossed, my friend. Sit, sit; we shall toast to times past."

His guest sat across from him at the table and produced a cask of cider.

"Let us toast with this; it is from the cove." His guest spoke quietly.

"Ah yes, the finest of all of Dereth." Jaleh smiled and offered his cup.


…that betrayal comes from those that you trust.

Greetings, and welcome to the June 2003 edition of the Asheron's Call Letter to the Players. Spring is warming into summer, creatures are getting their summer plumage, the fish are biting… and so are the bugs. There are just a few issues we wanted to discuss in this month's Letter, so let's get to it!

Shadowclaim

Twice in the past two months we have called on players to help us gather data, and twice players have answered our call with enthusiasm. Back at the beginning of May, we tested new hardware on the test world of Shadowclaim. The data from that test showed us several weaknesses in that configuration. Then at the end of May, we tested an improved configuration. As we write this we are still analyzing the data, but we can say at the very least that we are getting closer to launching a stable hardware upgrade. None of this would be possible without the energetic assistance of the players, and so we want to thank everyone who helped for the donation of their time and attention.

Isparian Arms

The June update includes some changes to the Isparian Arms quest and to the Isparian weapons themselves. We'll leave you to discover most of the details, but we do want to tell you about the most significant changes.

First, we streamlined the quest to obtain the necessary ingredients. These changes should not interrupt anyone who is already midway though the quest, except that you may be able to skip some of the old steps. If you were stuck in this quest due to the state of your quest flags, you will now be able to pick the quest up more or less where you left off. If you have any confusion or questions about this quest, just visit the Arcanum agents in Xarabydun—they will steer you right.

Second, the process of crafting the Isparian weapons has become simpler. We lowered several of the skill checks in order to make the quest more accessible for lower level characters, and in addition we modified the process that determines the quality of the weapon you create. Previously, the quality of the weapon you received depended on two things: the quality of the infused ingot and your weapon skill. Now, however, only the quality of the infused ingot determines the quality of the weapon. This means that you can no longer accidentally create a weapon with a wield requirement higher than you can wield—although you can still do so deliberately if you really want to.

Last, come July, putting a stone into an Isparian weapon no longer destroys the stone. And all existing variants of the Isparian weapons can be transferred between players. Note that this does not necessarily apply to any new Isparian weapon variants that we may add in the future.

Allegiance Recall

In order to better support our smaller allegiances, we are extending the ability for characters to recall to their monarch's house. Previously the @house mansion_recall command only worked to recall a character to a mansion, but now it will also work to recall a character to a villa (assuming that the monarch owns a villa, of course).

Command-Line Recalls and PK

In June, player killers who have been recently engaged in a PK battle will no longer be able to issue any of the command-line recalls, such as the house recalls, @lifestone, and @marketplace, until they have been out of battle for at least twenty seconds. This is similar to the restriction on using portals during a player-killer battle.

Drains

With the June update, characters will benefit from natural drain resistance against stamina and mana drain spells, as well as against health drain spells. In short, the drain resistance listed on your character information panel (also known as the burden panel) will work on all types of drains. Remember that you can use the command @endurance in game to find out more about your natural resistances.

In addition, the stamina and mana drain spells will now work just like health drains in terms of percent drained and the received multiplier. The following chart details these changes.

Mana and Stamina Transfer Spell Changes
Spell Level Old %
Drained New %
Drained Old Max Damage New Max Damage Old Received Multiplier New Received Multiplier
1 10% 25% 100 30 1.0 2.0
2 15% 25% 100 50 1.0 1.6
3 20% 25% 100 75 1.0 1.33
4 25% 25% 100 100 1.0 1.0
5 30% 30% 100 120 1.0 1.0
6 40% 40% 100 150 1.0 0.75
7 50% 50% 100 180 1.0 0.5


A Groundbreaking Opportunity

In June, players will have an opportunity to participate in the building of Dereth in a new and exciting fashion. Watch the Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty site (link to http://acdm.turbinegames.com/) after the update for more details!

The Peril Beneath

Last month, Asheron returned to his old school at Knorr to survey the damage and recover certain volumes of forgotten lore. Against his will, some Isparians followed him there and discovered a great deal of information about the Empyrean—and about their downfall via one angry Olthoi Queen. The Isparians also discovered evidence that the Queen had abandoned Knorr at some point, although she'd left part of her copious brood behind. While Asheron puzzles over who opened the way to Knorr, Elysa worries about signs of increased intelligence among the Olthoi of Dereth. And we are all left with one large question: Where is the Knorr Queen now?

Well Summer is here and June's patch is right around the corner so for those of you who can't wait till Thrusday here's the pre-patch notes.

Here we go:

The Isparian Arms quest will get an upgrade. Points include: Lower skills needed to create the weapons, Putting an Atlan Stone in the weapons no longer destroys the stone, The weapons will now be givable/droppable (and probably hookable),and the quest to obtain the weapons will be streamlined so its not so hard for someone to screw it up. Also it sounds like the weapons are going to be better than before.

From the LttP


Players can now recall to the allegiance monarch's villa if they have one.

From LttP


Stamina/Mana drains now behave the same way the health drains currently do.

From LttP


Stamina/Mana drains are now effected by a player's drain resistance.

From LttP


PK Players who have recently been fighting cannot use recalls like /house recall or /lifestone.

From LttP


New olthoi content (dungeon most likely). It looks like it might be on ML because from the picture it looks like there's a tumerock statue like the ones at Timaru in the background. Also you may note the eviscerator heads on the floor...

From Teaser (pic) and LttP


Some new content involving Jaleh (the founder of Ayan.

From Teaser


A new sho-style tower is in Wai-Jhou (looking a the picture either the tower is on ledge or it is taller than the usual towers we see)

From Teaser (pic)


A new dungeon with more rolling balls of death is open

From Teaser (pic)


A new aun tumerock vendor will be set up on ML (looks like the southern part to me). Looks like he/she is interested in housing decorations.

From Teaser (pic)


The virindi get new art, however some people believe that the new art only applies to one type of virindi. From the enlarged teaser pics the executors in the back ground appear to be unchanged so it looks like not all virindi will be updated with the new art.

From Teaser (pic)


Mirrors (or something)! The one picture looks like there is a reflection of the character and the background. Looks like its in a dungeon (I'll bet good money its the same one the rolling balls are in).

From Teaser (pic)


More content in Knorr

Comments by Orion, (although he may have just been hinting the content is already there we just haven't found it), Teaser


The level restrictions and/or possibly the log in to lifestone feature may be changed in the rubble dungeons

Comments by Srand


New content/NPC in Yaraq probably related to Jaleh and his mystery guest.

From the Teaser (the comments about the cove and apple cider kinda point toward Yaraq)


Nuhmidura's School completed. This has been on the PP notes since January and noothing has ever come of it, Nuhmie needs to get cracking

Developer's Comments, Arwic NPC quotes


A new use for Gromnie Hide. This is another ancient item that nothing ever came of.

Comments by Srand: "I'd hang on to that. But only if you aren't short on space and you don't mind waiting ...". That quote is like 6 months old lol


More ivoryable and/or hookable items

Trend in AC, most patches now introduce either one or the other, possibly both.


More spells get new icons

Trend, why would they suddenly decide to stop at portal recall (that was the last spell they updated I think)?


More old items, quests, or dungeons get updated

Trend, still plenty of places that need to be hit with the buff stick


More fishing holes

High level fishing holes are needed for the people who have hit 700 and can no longer fish at the newbie town fishing holes. There appears to be a dock at Wai-Jhou which is probably a just way to the new tower but maybe its actually a new fishing hole? Might be fun fighting off destroyer grievvers between your casts



Fixes/Minor Details:


The +10 life on the new Knorr helm will no longer stack with the Gaerlan Wand's +10 life

Comments by Orion


The +10 creature spell on the upgraded mage armor leggings will no longer say it overrides the +10 life from the new helm. BTW it just SAYS it overrides it but it really doesn't, just a display bug

Comments by Srand

Reedshark Slashers will have more hit points (that good loot doesn't come easily)

Comments by Orion


Black fire atlans will be ivoryable/ hookable

Comments by Srand


The spelling errors in last month's lore, NPC messages, and items names (tusted trident) will probably be fixed


The color on allegiance messages may be returned to the color pink

Comments by Srand