Basically this was the result of a variety of different contributing factors, and there's no blame to be laid. We had a two-year run and that's pretty good if you ask me; I've never had a game last longer than six months before, so in that respect we can consider this a success!
The truth is that Zenderael was on shaky footing from the day it started. It may have looked pretty on the front end, but on the back end it was held together with duct tape and good intentions, and it really is a miracle that it managed to last two months, nevermind two years. I've come away with some lessons learned as a mod, and some fond experiences as a player, and I hope all of you had some fun during its run as well.
We feel like it would be a disservice to our players if we didn't at least give you an outline of the proposed endgame. It sucks to make it all the way here only to never get to find out how things were supposed to end! So underneath the cut you will find our outline for the endgame (the details of which could have changed based on player choices).
( Mod Endgame Outline )
If you'd like to weigh in and discuss how things would've played out in the comments, you are more than welcome to! I'm also available to answer setting questions on this post, since there's no need to maintain a mystery anymore.
The game will remain open as a musebox, so if you do find yourself wanting to come back to this setting and these characters, you can. The zenpc account has been given the power to accept join requests, and the login information can be found on the contact page. There will no longer be mod guidance and the mod e-mail is no longer being checked, but if you have any questions you need answered, you are always free to contact me (Guindo) directly by whatever means you like.
We are sincerely sorry for not being able to deliver a proper endgame. Hopefully knowing how it was intended to end provides some sense of closure in lieu of that.
It was great getting to play with you all for as long as we had together. Wherever you decide to go next, good luck and enjoy yourselves!
Things didn't go as well as we hoped they would. Surgery actually has to be delayed for a couple of months so something else they did to save my life can heal up a bit. Unfortunately, the side effect of the thing they did means I can't really talk without assistance, so let's just say I'm starting to understand Rhys pretty well (at least from the perspective of being unable to sing).
I even have a whiteboard now. ;)
But, yeah, I have no idea when I'll definitely be back since rehab is the next step and I don't know if I'll be there for a couple of days or a month or what. Expect another update when I know more.
I miss you guys so much you have no idea.
So I know I've been MIA these past few weeks. There IS it reason, I promise.
See, I've been having some breathing issues lately. I won't gross you out with the specifics, but the short version is that my airway's obstructed, and surgery needs to happen, only the surgery can't happen until Tuesday. I have nfc if I'll be home Tuesday or not; that'll depend on how things go. I'm in the hospital on observation until then (and in case shit gets worse between now and then).
I'm updating from my phone, so I apologize for errors and whatnot. Anyway, the point of this is to say I'll be completely out of touch until Tuesday at the earliest. I'll try to update after surgery if I can.
Love you guys! ♥
The Mainyu is eager to expand his guild and isn't above coercion to make that happen. Blackguards may be recruited as normal, kidnapped and forced, or even blackmailed. The Mainyu will also be raising many people as undead, so if cleric resurrection is not an option, you can consider blackguard resurrection as an alternative.
( Guild Info: )
However, when they come off, given permanent schedule changes, we plan to wrap up the game. This is a little early and some plans may be cut; we think this is better than simply letting the game wither and getting no closure. We will be doing a full-disclosure plotting post when that time comes to figure out what direction we want to take this in.
We also plan to temporarily do away with weekchanges. The next one will be for Week 41 in early December. Until then, you're free to play without being restricted to the current week. Try to keep it relatively chronological, but don't feel you have to stop RPing or try to make week 38 the most eventful ever.
From now until then, assume a sort of status quo on modplot. No big events are happening (unless players make them happen), and the situation with guild leaders having nightmares and getting stalked by unseen things will persist without changes until week 41. Queen Omid is dead and Baldwin has become regent in her place. If you have any questions about the current state of things, please don't hesitate to ask!
because thanksgiving + midterms + essay = i will tag the shit out of things on saturday
sorry i haven't been around ):
Also I expect to be at least somewhat around because nights at a hotel are actually a pretty good time to do tagging.
Please comment with any questions or plans for the current week!
The next weekchange will be posted on October 27th RL-time.
However, as much of our cast is starting to pair off, so too must our shipping memes evolve, and this one is delightfully noncommittal!
I call it Compatibility Meme!
1. Tag in with your characters
2. Go comment one one another's characters with character prompts
3. When prompted, give one way the characters in question Are Compatible, and one way they Aren't Compatible. For example:
"We're compatible because we both like music.
We're incompatible because I want to kill you."
I think this meme works best IC, but you can answer OOC if you prefer, too! And I might recommend answering in two successive comments so you can use two different icons for the replies.
I had initially planned to have the druids track the Yosgeth down IC Tuesday but with the feast going on Monday I'm wondering if people are okay with that or if they'd prefer it pushed back to Friday?
So I guess firstly: Who wants to be involved? I can either do a guild leader email from Mal or a public post from Val, depending on who wants to take part in the battle.
Secondly: Would you prefer Tuesday or Friday?
Of note:
Yosgeth is weak ONLY to Holy, and strong to everything else, so Holy enchants will be required (IIRC Duncan can provide those?).
She also has attacks that ignore armor EXCEPT Holy.
She can possess, which can be prevented by hitting her with a Holy damage spell, or stopped (once it's happened) with a high-level disenchant to force her out again.
The goal won't be to kill it, but to weaken it so Mal can charm it.
Anything people want to see happen? Getting possessed, injured, etc? :x
Comments/questions/concerns? Feel free to use weekchange posts as discussion posts! If there's something you want to do in the coming week, you can comment about it here and let people know/sign up/whatever.
The next weekchange will be posted on October 6th RL-time.
1) Using this link as a guideline, find the card the best identifies your character.
2) Tag in with your card.
Bonus round) Offer alternate cards??
You can use any card, major or minor arcana!
Sarai Elahn is a frontliner spellsword former-alt of a young lady named Sarah Allen. The sharp may notice that Sarah is not an especially creative person as Sarai's name is just a slight perversion of her own.
Sarai was a minimally-roleplayed level-capped alt - sort of half-jokingly RP'd when her friends started gabbing IC, more or less - who was used mainly for raiding. She woke up during the unusual and unfortunate circumstance of being Dead in the game's coded parlance. This unfortunately appears to mean actually-dead to the awakened. Like most resurrectees, she lost something in the Dark, but unlike most she has very little context of herself before her death and therefore it is hard to say what she lost.
She's much happier with herself than when Sarah played her, whatever it was. Sarai and Sarah got in touch with each other during the process of the merges and hit it off famously. At that time, Sarai was actually an extreme support build, but she became much more aggressive after awakening, and growing into her own person left her ill-suited to the mindset. So Sarah logged her in and marched her down to the respec contact, and respecced her into the heavy-combat DPS build she has now, which Sarai found very impressive. The two are pretty much fast friends and talking to Sarai about players almost inevitably gets her to sigh dreamily about how cool they are. Or at least hers is. Sarai's deeply enamored with Earth things and has become something of a technophile. She has so many gadgets it's a little bananas. She has a leather spellbook mount on her belt which she keeps her tablet in.
Alas, Sarah is trapped in Ireland thanks to the final Merge. She will probably undertake the Odyssey to reach Zenderael at some point. Sarai rejoined the Ambergaze during the War, where she has served faithfully if with somewhat greater-than-necessary zeal in the beating up monsters department. She is highly aggressive in battle, using a sword-and-sheath style mixed with heavy Spellsword elemental offense. She likes fire. ...a lot.
After talking to Guin some, we've decided that -- rather than have a backdated scene that's largely exposition with Lisa -- we would prefer to just do the screen off-screen and do an outline of what happened. That is the purpose of this post.
Lisa is going to be brought back to the Undertow. Once she is there, she will reveal the following information:
1) As Lisa said in the event post, she worked for X-DAV. She was hired as an event writer; some of what she wrote has happened. She isn't sure if she made it happen or if she was somehow chronicling things that would happen, like a prophet. She is honest about this and maybe a little guilty, hence all the donations to reconstructing Bastan.
2) Kandre Volcano is starting to act up because of a magma leviathan underneath it, named Kaga. Kaga is an immense fire dragon, whose awakening could cause Kandre to blow its top because he will wake up irritated.
3) The way to stop this is to feed him. Kaga is a fussy eater; he wants very good and high quality food, which means a feast is in order. She says that Kaga is supposed to reward whoever makes the finest dish with a treasure, but she was never told what it was.
Let's figure out the following: what people who were there did, what questions were asked, and anything else. Lisa will ask Rhys if she can stay in the Undertow permanently; she is scared that the Greycloaks may want to finish the job.
so mostly this just means more of the same- the sort-of-not-really around business I've been pulling the last little while, trying to get everything packed and sorted. My parents being here just makes it feel more official. Thus, hiatus.
HOWEVER I will be hooked up to the interwebs almost immediately once I get to my new place, it's really just a matter of getting my new bed and desk together when I get there and having some time to myself! So I'll be around then, too, just restricted for a little bit until my parents leave on the 6th.
So yeah! /o/
Comments/questions/concerns? Feel free to use weekchange posts as discussion posts! If there's something you want to do in the coming week, you can comment about it here and let people know/sign up/whatever.
The next weekchange will be posted on September 15th RL-time.
So we're down to one mod for the moment with a second event post planned for tomorrow when the IC week hasn't advanced past Sunday because everyone's been waiting on the event post before we move on.
OBVIOUSLY going ahead with the week as outlined in the weekchange is, at this point, inadvisable.
Question #1: How is the event going to turn out?
• Does Lisa survive or is she killed?
• Whose hands does she end up in by the end of the chase (alive or dead)?
As long as we know those two things, we will be able to move on. How we get there isn't as important. Post discussion in this thread.
Question #2: How should we handle the week?
• Keep events as planned but add a week extension?
• Keep it to 3 weeks and push the other event (the Kandre Volcano landslide) to next IC week?
• Other?
Suggestions and alternatives welcome in the comments! Post your responses here.
My internet's not hooked up until the 19th so I will not be around much til then.
I predict a lot of instability to start with, so while it's not an official hiatus, I do want to give the heads up and I'll give more information on availability when I can. Here's hoping things settle down sooner than later. At the very least, my hours will change since I will go for PST to EST and that's gonna take some adjustment.
Doom and Hibi are going to be there too, incidentally. If shenanigans ensue/if loud proclamations about the game gets us arrested ("So I figure at some point we'll just totally destroy Paris!"), we will report them faithfully/not at all.