First Day of Summer Feast - The LQ Trascript

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! A grave threat has been brought to our attention and it is asked that all heroes of the land be ready to take up arms against this terrible threat that may strike at any moment. If you wish to learn more about this, I am told that an envoy was sent to the feast to tell the tale to those in attendance.

*a half hour passes*

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! Reports are coming in that Stoneybrook suffered a grave attack. Many innocent people were killed and the damage was significant.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! Follow up reports confirm suspicions that Stoneybrook was destroyed by a Conqueror Wurm and an army of Nec-Bathat's followers.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The wurm was seen burrowing into the ground and its army taking off on foot. An investigation is underway to find out where it is heading so that this unholy army can be confronted and put down before many more innocent lives are lost.

*minutes later*

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! It has been reported that the small hamlet of Ashberry, located north of Stoneybrook, has also been destroyed.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! It has now been confirmed that the Conqueror Wurm was once against responsible and has since moved on from that location. Fortunately a mage, in service to a special order of mages, managed to stumble upon the army while searching for possible locations the Conqueror Wurm would strike next. Although she was killed, it is said she managed to cast a tracking spell on the wurm which will allow her order to track the beast and determine where he is headed in advance. They are now viewing him with their magical orbs and should be able to alert us to where he is headed shortly.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The mages have informed us that the wurm is headed to the elven village of Raukos Nwalya, located near the edge of the Almien forest. They implore you to head there with all haste as it is expected that he an his army will already be in the middle of searching the village before the nearest heroes can get there.

*the battle wages on*

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! Bad news! The Conqueror Wurm has burrowed underground and the bulk of his army has taken off as well. The mages are once again tracking him in hopes of trying to pinpoint the next village he plans to attack.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The mages believe the great wurm is headed for Bilyn's Town, located near the bridge south of Noir. Once again, please hurry with all haste lest you wish to get there after the wurm has already ravaged the place and moved on.

*the battle wages on**

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The great wurm and its army has continued on once more!
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! It's believed the wurm is headed for Claverack, located Northwest of Noir.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! Scratch that. The mages believe the wurm is instead headed for the shoreside hamlet of Fallwick, located east of Toys in the Attic.

*the battle wages on*

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The great wurm and its army has left Fallwick.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The Wurm is on its way to the Orc infested Town currently known as Orc's Rock! It's located just north of Toys in the Attic and northwest of Fallwick.

*the battle wages on*

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! It looked like the band of heroes were about to defeat the wurm this time around, but it once again has burrowed into the ground and taken off!
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The wurm is headed to Blackwynne, located southeast of the Temple of Life, next! Hurry brave heroes!

*the battle wages on*

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! Moral is low as the wurm once again vanishes by burrowing into the ground.
-Town Crier shouts: Oh my dear! Oh my dear! The mages have reported that the wurm and its army are now headed for Alaria! Quick! Quick! This beast must be stopped before its too late for Alaria and its many citizens!
-Town Crier breathes a sigh of relief and shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The mages appear to have been mistaken. The wurm was actually headed to Shadowham, located by the sea, just north of Alaria.

*the battle wages on*

-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The wurm has escaped death once more.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The mages report that it is on the move eastward, but aren't sure where it is headed as of yet.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The wurm's army has been spotted moving along King's Road, but still no confirmation as to were they or the wurm are headed.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! We have word! The wurm is almost at Hawthorne. It is a little known village, hidden deep in the mountains west of Blackrose. It can only be accessed through a series of caves under the mountains. The entrance to said caves is located south of Blackrose's main gate.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! Reports indicate that the bulk of the wurm's army have set up camp in the caves leading to Hawthorne so as to slow down any attempts at approaching the village.

*the battle wages on*

-From as far away as Alaria and the great feast, a bright blue light can be seen shimmering on the mountains where Hawthorne is located. The light appears to be a series of blue rays that originate from Hawthorne.
-You stare upon the light in amazement and wonder what it going on there just as a loud boom echoes down through the land.
-In Hawthorne, the band of heroes fall back as a great beast of a thing appears before them...Nec-bathat...She's....here...They found the relic. No!
-Tears well up in the eyes of many of those who risked their lives to trying to stop her from returning as they look upon the horrifying sight that is Nec-bathat, demon goddess of death. This cannot be how it ends, they think...It just can't be.
-And with that thought, the battered and tired heroes seem to gather every bit of energy and courage they have left within them, for they move forward in unison and prepare to die trying to stop this demi-god from realizing its dreams of complete and utter destruction. Although the effort seems futile, none seem to care as they shrug off the pain from the multiple bloody wounds, that cover their bodies, and charge at the she-demon.
-Town Crier shouts: antithigram led the battle in vanquishing Conqueror Wurm!

*the ultimate battle takes place*

-Town Crier shouts: patriarch led the battle in vanquishing Nec-Bathat!
-After a long, hard battle, the final blow is inflicted onto Nec-bathat, causing her physical body to collapse onto the ground. You can hear a long, high-pitched wail as her immortal spirit is sent back to the Abyss where her body can be reformed. Although she has been defeated this day, the threat of Nec-bathat looms on forever more.
-Town Crier shouts: I...I don't believe it. None of us do. Nec-bathat has been vanquished! The land is safe!
-Throughout the land, cheers go up for the brave heroes who fought and died this day. Chatter takes place about erecting a monument to them and someone suggests later dragging the heroic statue from the feast, all the way to Hawthorne. Cries of; "Great idea!" ensue.
-Suddenly a bright flash of red light is seen falling from the heavens onto Hawthorne. Those there are startled to see a Phoenix, as bright and beautiful as the sun itself.
-A series of loud voices speak at once: Well done, people of Wyvern. Nec-bathat knows better than to try to directly strike out at mortals in such a fashion. As a demi-god she is not normally restricted to being stuck in the Abyss after a defeat here, in the prime material plane. But as punishment, we have once again made sure she is banished for a hundred of your years. At which point we will evaluate if she has learned her lesson.
-You realize that the voices were actually many of the goodly gods and so you bow your heads in reverence to their glory and continued kindness. After a fashion, you look up to gaze upon the phoenix once more. It was sent to channel their voices to you and, knowing that, you smile at the phoenix...nay the symbol of hope that majestically poses before you.

...

-As an afterthought a small group think to search for the relic, but it is nowhere to be found. One can only hope the gods took it for safekeeping. You try to convince yourself that that is the most likely scenario, but a feeling of dread fills your body anyway.

First Day of Summer Feast - The Screenshots

As expected, not many took the time to help document the day, which totally fine as I didn't want people to have to worry about stopping in the middle of their fun to take screenshots unless they really wanted to. So I have a collection of my own for all of you to use to remember the fun. Enjoy...

Arilou's Screenshots:

Ah, the trivia contest. Out of the three I ran, this is from the first. Everyone flocked into this one map when called and sat down to try their hand at winning some feast tokens. The plan was to ask ten questions and give out four tokens as a 1st prize, two tokens as a 2nd prize, and one token as a 3rd prize. But, it was a four way tie with those four people each getting two questions right so I just gave them each two tokens.

Here players excitedly wait for Teshuvah's Mining LQ to begin.

The Mining Lq just ended (thus the pickaxes flung carelessly across the ground) and players returned to stuffing their faces with food so that they could become all the better for me to eat. I must say, players are a strange kind of prey. They just flock around a hungry predator, seeming not to care that they are making said predator's job all the more easy. I'm not sure if it's foolishness or stupidity. Perhaps a combination of both. As you can see from this screenshot one, especially tasty look halfling, even dared to think that simply surrounding me could cause me to be trapped.

Like Stone Giants to the slaughter, a large group of players gather in preparation for the day's Pk LQ.

Players find that the Conqueror Wurm's army has destroyed a small elven community and are in the process of digging through the area in search of the famed relic. "Bravely," the band of selfish vagabonds do battle with Nec-Bathat's followers in hopes of stopping their reign of destruction here before too many more lives are lost.
As it turns out, those "heroes" couldn't save their way out of a paper bag and so the Conqueror Wurm is able to move on to destroy the hamlet known as Bilyn's Town. They once again confront Nec-bathat's followers and once again...
...their being there only barely slowed the army's search for the relic and so they are able to determine that it is not there and move on to destroy Fallwick. As you can see from this shot of Fallwick, a Stone Giant bravely fights a pair of deadly Glabrezus, while a Paladin leaves him for dead and appears to be searching for a corner to hide in. Typical.
But wait, here the Paladin is seen going up against the Conqueror Wurm. Or so it seems... clearly, his hiding spot had been discovered and after trying to flee, he found himself cornered. No doubt he is wetting himself at this moment. Poor little Paladin.
And so the Conqueror Wurm moves on to obliterate another poor village. This time we see a pair of those brave (is being too stupid to run really considered bravery?) Stone Giants trying to stop the Conqueror Wurm's path of destruction here and now. As you can see, the paladin is nowhere to be seen. No doubt he died crying back in Fallwick. He will forever be forgotten.
Oh dear. As the band traverses the underground caves that lead to Hawthorne, they encounter a fierce bunch of undead horrors. It turns out that the army has supplemented its lost numbers by using these undead to try and kill the interlopers.

Nec-bathat lives! Mwahahaha! With the relic recovered, she has been summoned from the Abyss to continue the destruction she begun five years ago. But first she must defeat these insignificant little whelps who foolishly stand before the Goddess of Death!
The survivors of the Nec-bathat battle return to the feast. Not to help care for the wounded, mind you, but to try to exchange their spoils of war for rarities. It makes you wonder whatever happened to those heroes that fought simply to protect the weak and make the world a better place, doesn't it?
The third Trivia contest for the day takes place. After the first one, I did two more contests that consisted of ten questions each and this time everyone who got an answer right got a feast token.
Just because, I took a screenshot of Legolas' chessboard pieces. He introduced the new graphics at the first feast and then used them for a chessboard in Almien ao it was fitting that they make their appearance this year. Further on there's also a checkers board. Early in the day people were earnestly playing both games, but as the day went on they seemed to have lost interest. Every time I went to check on it after the morning hours I found the place empty. Here, I seem to have missed someone who started a Chess game, but left in the middle. Alas.
As the day wound to an end, the feast map emptied and everyone begun to park themselves in Valkon's lottery, waiting for a new lottery ticket to become available and chatting in the interim. The wizards followed with Legolas, Teshuvah, Binyamin, Arilou, Contrare, Valkon, a crushed pixie, and others making appearances before they went off to catch some must needed rest.
Arilou, having napped just before, decided to take this time to eat all the players he could catch. If you look closely, you can see that here I've pinned a Halfling down and am in the process of stuffing his fat self into my mouth. Naturally, this is the end result of toying with my little prey for quite some time, taking chunks out of his meaty hide and "accidentally" releasing him so that I could chase him down once more. While it was fun torturing the bug-eyed creature, I could only resist chowing down on him for so long. Oh and for the record... he was a most delicious meal indeed.

Randorxeous' Screenshots:
http://tlsuda.com/wyvernfeast/

Steovanni's Screenshots:


Patriarch's Screenshots:

http://www.freewebs.com/atriarch/summerfeast2008.htm

Well, that's all folks. For now anyway - It's never too late to in-game mail me and let me know you have feast stuff that you want me to include here. So if you're slow on the uptake, no biggie. Anyway, I'll be following this up with at least two more blog posts that are more informative than visual. So check in if you think that might be of interest to you.

First Day of Summer Feast - The Day After

If I do say so myself, the feast was a smashing success. It was a lot of fun all around and I think most everyone would agree. In the next couple of days I'll be posting screenshots and describing the days events for anyone who wasn't around for all or some of it. I'll also give a complete run down of the main lq and get a bit deeper into the plot for any interested.

In the meantime, I'd like to request that anyone who took screenshots or videos, in-game mail me. Any links you send me will be posted here and if you don't have anywhere to host it, just let me know in the message and I'll give you an email where you can send it to (I'll upload it here for posterity sake). I have my own screenshots, which I'll be posting either way, so if nobody comes through, there will still be something for you guys to remember the day by. Plus, a player was nice enough to get in contact with me already. Still, it would be awesome if someone managed to capture the lq on video.

Anyway, I have to get back to the fun part, (doing the work needed to get some of this new content into the game on a regular basis) but I'll be back to blogging soon.

Trivia Contest

Wow, just wow. I ran a number of Trivia Contests today in honor of the ones Rhialto used to do late at night. It's a pretty simple concept. Answer some basic Wyvern trivia questions and win a prize. However, the type of answers I got back were mind boggling. Take this one, for example. I asked this: "How many arch wizards are there and what are their names?" and below are the hilarious replies I got back.

klodin says: 4
klodin says: ummm
patriarch says: 2 legolas and rhialto
snarfer growls: 2 Arilou, and Teshuvah
crier says: 3 Kupior, Legolas Rhialto
heqet says: 2 rhialto legolas
tyranos says: say legolas and rhialto
zevran says: legolas rhialto
veldin says: 3, teshavuah, arilou and binyamin
randorxeous says: 3 lego, rhialto and kupior
dermatolith says: 7- sleepy, dopey, doc, bashful...
klodin says: 4 Rhialto, Teshuvah, Kiz and Caius
snarfer growls: 1 Legolas
tyranos says: say legolas and rhialto 2
firexr says: 3, rhialto, legoles, ad kiz
rifkas says: 2. Legolas and Rhialto
tyranos says: say legolas and rhialto 2 tesh biny
veldin says: 3, teshavuah, arilou and rhailato
tyranos says: say legolas and rhialto 2 readen
tyranos says: say legolas and rhialto 3 readen
patriarch says: 3 kiz, legolas, and rhialto
snarfer growls: 2 Legolas, and Kupior
tyranos says: say legolas and rhialto 3 tesh
zevran says: 4 legolas rhialto kiz janica
heqet says: 3 kiz, kupior, legolas
tyranos says: say legolas and rhialto 4 biny tesh
veldin says: 3, teshavah, arilou and legolas
klodin says: Janica's a elder
crier says: Kix, Tesh, Lego, 3?
steovanni says: 3
snarfer growls: 2 Legolas, and Kiz
klodin says: the 4th is someone who starts with C i think
crier says: kiz*
heqet says: 2 legoloas, kiz
patriarch says: 1, legolas
tyranos says: me
steovanni says: tesh arilou
randorxeous says: 5 lego, rhialto, chirs, and others?
klodin says: there are 4 >.<
You say: It's 4, yes...Now who are they?
perceptor says: 3 Cloud Strife, Sephiroth and Johnny Cash
steovanni says: 4
veldin says: 4, teshavah, arilou, janica, binaymin
klodin says: Rhialto, Teshuvah, Kiz and C......
crier says: Tesh, Lego, Arilou, Ciaus
steovanni says: tesh lego arilou cauis
beckhan says: rhialto legolas benyamin and teshuvah
rifkas says: 4. Teshuvah, Binyamin, Arilou, Lego
snarfer growls: 4 Legolas, Kiz, Janica, and Ciaus.
patriarch says: 3 lego, ciaus, and R
klodin says: Rhialto, Teshuvah, Kiz and Ciaus?
raffy says: Rhialto Legolas Galdor Kiz
rifkas says: 4. Teshuvah, Rhialto, Arilou, Lego
klodin says: arilou's not arhc
patriarch says: 5 kiz, caius, rhialto, janica, and legolas
snarfer growls: 4 Legolas Kiz Rhialto and Ciaus
randorxeous says: 5 lefo, R, kiz, janica and ciaus?
steovanni says: rhialto legolas kiz cauis
veldin says: 4, teshavah, arilou, janica, legolas
beckhan says: rhialto legolas kiz and teshuvah
perceptor says: Legolas, Kiz, Teshuvah, Ciaus
zevran says: legolas kiz caius rhialto
tyranos says: rhialto legolas zifa claus 4

And my all time favorite: patriarch says: 4 kupoir, legolas, rhialto, and kupoir Gotta Love those Kupior twins. :)

People ask how many arch wizards there are and who they are all the time and I'm constantly answering that question. Knowing this, I thought it would be a breeze, but apparently not. First of all, how do you seriously answer the question without including Rhialto in it by default? Even if you don't know all of them, he's obvious. Secondly, I was visible - Anyone who typed wizards could've seen I was an Elder and not an Arch Wizard, yet my name kept coming up. Third, Kupior? Seriously? That name was thrown out way too many times. How so many people could confuse a full wizard with an arch wizard I do not know. Janica...Okay. Raeden...Okay. Teshuvah, come on, she's around all the time...Okay though. But Kupior? Silly players.

It went on like this for awhile, but this was the most comical. Other gems included seriously mixing up when wizards were first promoted, (which is no big deal in and of itself, but the level at which they mixed them up was classic) not knowing that Thrain originally made the Mist Temple (that should be common knowledge) and responding that Legolas and Rhialto were elders to a question asking players to list all our Elder Wizards ("then says: arilou, teshuvah, rhialto, legolas, binyamin"). Surprisingly, though, everyone knew Teshuvah was afraid of Spiders - After asking that question my screen filled with "spider! spider! spider...." Which, of course, made me happy as I exist to make sure everyone knows this.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my amusement. More blogging about the feast will be done over the next few days. Which will include a full run down of the main lq for anyone who missed it and lots of screenshots!

First Day of Summer Feast and LQ

You heard that right, we are doing the First Day of Summer Feast again this year on June 21st. It hasn't happened in five years and it may never happen again, so miss out only if you have to.

Whether you were here for the first one or not, you are in for a treat. It will be an all day event that you can stop in on at any time and find something to do from hanging out with good company in our lovely feast area to enjoying some of the games we will be hosting. Many of our active wizards have banded together to contribute something for this event so expect to see a wave of new content. Much of which will end up working its way into the game afterwards, but some of it can only be seen/obtained on this special day. So as to not spoil things for you, the wizards are remaining tight lipped on the specifics of what you can expect to encounter, but trust me when I say you will enjoy yourself with what we have planned for you.

However, if are really dying to get some sort of idea of what it will be like, I recommend seeking out your fellow players who were here for the 2003 feast. Ask them to publicly share their stories and see if any have screenshots that they will be willing to put up on the forum. While you're at it, you can also stop by Glacier Point and Lirkka to see some of the lasting effects that day had on the game. There was a lot going on that day and it was a lot fun, but if I do so dare, I think we've managed to top it.

Oh and by the way, I'd like take this time to encourage you people to take screenshots and make videos during the feast. The last one wasn't well documented and it would be nice if future Wyverneers had something to look back on. I'll be blogging about it sometime after it happens and I'd be more than happy to link to any videos or display any screenshots for those of you who contact me about it. More so, if you have a website (even a freewebs one) and you want to make a page about the feast, just let me know and I'll even link to that. That said, if you feel any of this will be a distraction, just have fun and absorb the day. That's what it's all about, after all.

Game Informer

 

 Well, I was feasting on the flesh of some tasty little players yesterday and in-between their screams of absolute and total pain, we got to talking and the old Wyvern Game Informer article came up. That is, of course, once they stopped begging for their lives while tears flowed freely down their rump little faces that you could just eat up. But I digress. The point is, it got me thinking and I thought it would make an okay blog post, if for no other reason than to document the article for posterity's sake.

For those of you who missed out, I'll give you a quick backstory: It was a cold winter's day back in December of '04. The sun was glistening on fresh banks of snow as far as the eye could see. Out in the distance one could view the most magnificent sight of a lone...

What? Right, right, it was supposed to be a quick backstory. Skipping ahead then: A player had made an excited forum post about the game getting reviewed in a magazine. Naturally, I laughed it off, thinking it another attempt by the players to mess with each other. However, the discussion continued and the post was followed up with a transcript of the article, which made it a little more believable, but with these rugrats you never know. So I returned to my meal of roast halfling and put the nonsense out of my mind. Days later, I found myself at Barnes and Noble buying a pile of books, as I'm known to do. On a whim, I walked over to the magazine section and began rummaging around looking for this Game Informer magazine that held the alleged article. At first, the magazine was nowhere to be found and I was about to walk away, but then...

What's that? This isn't getting to the point any quicker you say? All of this is just pointless little details that nobody cares about? Well I never... oh, all right, you win. The point is I found the article, scanned it into my computer, and posted it on the forums for players to see. Not very exciting and I know you don't care. Honestly, I don't either, but I just filled up another paragraph on this blog that would've worked fine just having had the pictures and nothing else. Ha! Ha! My plan to bore you all to death is working perfectly!

Okay, fine, fine, I'm done with the insanity (for now). I'll leave you off with two more images (below). To give a complete picture I photographed the magazine cover and the page that the article was on. As you can see it's nothing huge, but I found it interesting that one of the players I was talking to yesterday came to the game this year because of the article. He had noticed it back when it came out but ignored it until recently. So it's still having an effect and it's a nice little thing that adds a bit of notability to Wyvern.

Plus, it's so minor that the Game Informer website doesn't mention it on its website under the details for this issue, so I figured, hey, it deserves to be documented somewhere and what better place then among my ramblings? No really, tell me of a better place. It deserves much more than this dinky little blog. If it could talk it would be screaming for help right this second. And wait, I think it's actually doing that. Yes. Yes! I can hear it! ... oh, my bad. That's just another voice in my head, trying to mess with me... great, now he's laughing at me. Well he's not getting the last laugh. No sir!



By the way, for those of you interested, your friendly neighborhood wizards are planning something big (I kid you not) and to wet your appetites I might just make a blog post next month that slightly scratches the surface of what it will be. But you have to good little boys and girls. Otherwise I may just have to sacrifice Mr. Wiggles to the monster that lives under your bed and we don't want that, now do we? Well... maybe you don't. Mwuahahaha!

But seriously, it's legitimately very exciting that I'm sure you're all going to love it once you know what it is. Stay tuned!

The Exciting Conclusion to the Chaotic Jester Event

Several weeks in the making and after all the confused ramblings, the whining, and the shouts of pretend joy, the full picture has been revealed. In case you have not been following the tale I will copy everything said tonight here once again. But first some general notes:

Those who fully took part in the event received a number of rewards. The first went to those who died in the March 31st slaughter. They were able to reclaim a Jester Wand from the Netherworld, which is a special memento of this day that will never again be given out. Later that night, those who had the wand, and were willing to prove it, received an xp voucher and a renamed Jester doll. If you were hoping for something you could use in combat, sorry, but since the Jester won it didn't make sense for people to come out of it with anything of value. However, tonight that changed. The one who defeated the Marilith claimed an artifact (or gem, depending on what popped up out of the random spawn list) and the one who defeated the Chaotic Jester claimed a random mini-lq item from Janica's goditem spawns. Meanwhile, everyone who made it to the end was rewarded with two prize tokens and as a special something everyone who had the jester wand received an additional two prize tokens and the new Amulet of Valor. This was done by design to reward those who were brave enough to risk this live quest after facing a horrible defeat in the last one. Congratulations to all who came away with something.

To those still confused after reading all the fakeshout transcripts, the purpose behind this event was several fold. The primary reasons were that I wanted an explanation for the little April Fools thing I do in Forgotten Oak and I wanted to have a Live Quest where the boss won. Every year I warp Forgotten Oak into a blur of colors, upsidedownness, and general wackiness. However, this year I thought it would be fun if there was a plot reason behind it. So the Chaotic Jester (aka the ancient demon) was born. He escaped, waited for April Fools Eve to make his move as he absorbed special powers on this and the following day, and then the Live Quest ended with the players defeated so the Jester was able to make his "mark" by claiming Forgotten Oak as his own. Of course, after 24 hours I always take down the decoration and return Forgotten Oak to its previous state, so I planned for the victory to be short lived. Thus the second live quest took place. The Jester went to make his move, but since Arilou (the character) was involved, the Arch Wizards stepped in and gave players the opportunity to finish him off. All in all, everything went just as planned (server crashes aside). Throughout the years, players had always commented on how it was a shame the Live Quest monster did not win, so as a reward I came up with the first Live Quest where just that happened.

Secondary to that, I liked the idea of setting up a Live Quest in advance and revealing plot pieces bit by bit. In the past I've never liked doing plot based live quests as they seem like a waste of time. I write a story, a couple dozen players participate and even fewer pay attention to the details. Then it's over and is forgotten as the plot doesn't allow for you to keep redoing the live quest and to do so anyway would be stupid. Many wizards feel the same way which is why they make generic live quests that are rather brief and not extremely heavy on the plot as the 2002 Live Quests were. However, this blog gave me the opportunity to immortalize it in a way where I was able to get excited about doing one (plus the Jester Wand is akin to the Lirkka statue - People will always be applying to it and people will in turn ask to be told what the event was about). As such I'd like to do this again someday once I'm done with areas I need to get in-game first and when the server can better handle lots of players online. I have something in my head that expands over several months - At first the Live Quests begin as an exploratory to something sinister going on. Then, as more of what is going on is revealed to you, you get into bigger battles with Generals of a dark evil before eventually being able to encounter the Dark One yourself. Rather than just doing them randomly, they can be announced in advance and players can set aside time to take part in it. It generates more excitement that way and gives people something to look forward to and follow closely. But, if I were to do something like that it would be a long way into the future.

Something I'd also like to do more of is expand on the Arilou character. If you've been following my ramblings you know I want to introduce characters to Wyvern that you encounter time and time again. Arilou is already a developed character and I love creating things for him. For the most part he is limited to what "I" say in shouts and on this blog as him. However, he has always made himself known in the Elemental Dungeon and I've always been thinking up other ways to include him. One idea involved him creating a temple and trying to gain worshipers in an attempt to attain godhood, but Rhialto and Legolas tore his temple to the ground while Arilou held his head down off to the side, (I referenced the idea tonight) quite pained over the incident as he was sooo close. Meanwhile this Live Quest presented another way to include his character and in a rather exciting way. Once again he's out there trying to spread chaos, once again he's lurking in the shadows, and once again the arch wizards limit the scope of his scheming. He's really a great little character and I very much so enjoy getting into his head.

Anyway, as you already noticed I took a number of sreenshots for you people. As you can also see the maps are very chaotic, very nonsense oriented, and do not have the same kind of flow a normal map would. This is by design. I've done this when creating the Forgotten Oak April Fools map and wanted to continue it with the Live Quest. Basically, the idea is that if it looks "good" then it's bad. It might be cool and a little neat to see it for the first time, but you should come away with a feeling of; "what was that garbage?" when leaving. In contrast I also took a screenshot of the Great Hall of Minath Elion which has a more pleasing design. Here players were rewarded with the Amulet of Valor by the princess (in keeping with the vague Minath plot about the King not being around, I had the npcs claim the King wanted to thank them but did not have him make an appearance) and later players were able to drink, eat, and be merry for all of 5 minutes before they ran off.

Well that's about it. I'd just like to give a very special thanks one of our new wizards, Valkon, for putting together The Infernal Galop (aka the can-can) score which you could hear during the Live Quest. I had wanted to bring that music into the game for so long and Valkon made it possible. Now that has made its appearance in the Live Quest it will make its way into the general rotation of midis which wizards can use for their areas. Thanks again, Valkon.

Tonight's Transcript

-From within his dark lair the jester flexes his muscles as his absorption of power is almost complete. Soon... very soon, the conquest shall begin.

*an hour passes*

-An ominous cloud appears overhead.
-The now beefed up jester steps out into the daylight and smirks as he looks down on the world that will soon be his. It's not the prettiest sight to his warped mind but that shall all change when he replaces it all with a haze of colors and warps reality with his powerful illusionary magic.
-From the ground below, Arilou appears and excitedly pats his clawed hands together as he watches the culmination of a long thought out plan come to a head. The forces of chaos shall finally reign.
-Never would he have been able to achieve this on his own. While his power is great, it comes from the Arch Wizards and so he must dance a line in regard to interfering with mortals. Always being sure not to go too far in his attempts to bring chaos to the masses, lest he wake the bearded ones from their dreamy slumber deep below the surface.
-But this, this was the perfect plan, he mused, while watching the Chaotic Jester. The Jester was already a force in the universe, locked away in a dark realm in the early days of the world, long before the memory of any can remember. After learning about the creature, all he had to do was fight his way through the extra-planar guardians and break the chains that kept the Jester from achieving his true potential. All he had to do now was not be overt about his involvement and chaos would reign.
-While Arilou pats himself on the back, the Chaotic Jester goes to work summoning his dark forces. He reanimates his Undead Unicorns, resurrects the fallen soldiers that they might unwillingly serve him once more, and re-summons his Marilith General from the Abyss.
-From his base, in Forgotten Oak, the Jester levitates his forces around him and begins to move them forward, setting his sights on the main land. But suddenly the ground rumbles furiously and a series of lightning bolts soar through the sky overhead.
-An old, raspy voice can be heard bellowing orders to halt. The jester replies with a mocking laugh but suddenly he feels himself fall to ground in a sharp wave of pain.
-Arilou moves quickly to defend his interests but is flung aside like a rag doll by a telekinetic force. Then, from within the mist, steps forward four wizened old men, that have the appearance of barely being able to hold themselves together, yet at the same time, emit tremendous power.
-Arilou and the Jester squeal in unison and try to bring themselves to their feet but cannot.
-Together the four bearded old men chant and a wave of light falls over the Jester and his minions, which elicit screams of pain from all.
-The apparent leader of the bunch steps forward and bellows: Did you think we would not find out about your scheming? First you try to claim the title, Lord of Chaos for yourself and gain worshipers in an attempt to elevate yourself to godhood. Now you free this most ancient of demons that has a fancy for illusionary magic and disguising himself as a human fool.
-Arilou wrinkles his nose and in response utters: It should've worked.
-The apparent blue robed leader bellows: Typical. I applaud your effort. Still, you shouldn't have been the one to free it. I will not undo all that is, but the being has been weakened considerably and in doing so the magic that flows throw him and to his minions is lessened, making them weaker as well. If it wants to conquer the world, it will have to fight with its own sweat and blood. The old man turns to his companions and utters a single word, causing the ground to envelop the four of them.
-The Jester and Arilou share a look, but then Arilou quickly does his own vanishing act, leaving behind a puff of smoke.
-Alone and feeling severely weakened, the Chaotic Jester gathers his forces and retreats back to his hiding place in Forgotten Oak. He needs time to restructure his plan in light of recent events... now would be the perfect opportunity to lead an assault against him and his minions and be rid of this demon once and for all.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The Jester has once again been spotted on the island of Forgotten Oak.

*some time passes*

-The jester utters a gurgled scream as his body falls to the ground, quite lifeless.
-Those around for the event begin to cheer, but suddenly their faces turn to that of horror as his dark essence springs forth from the body and begins to expand.
-Just as they begin to cower, something grabs at the shadow and pulls it away into a dark cloud.
-Though his form was destroyed, the demon's essence is eternal. However, he will trouble none anymore for the remaining guardians have recaptured him and, with newly forged chains that beam with even more power than before, they lock the demon away. It cries out in defeat, wanting nothing less than to return to this fate of complete and utter hopelessness.
-Meanwhile, the jester's illusions begin to vanish and its so called "mark" fades away to reveal the Forgotten Oak of old.
-Town Crier shouts: Hear ye! Hear ye! The High King of Minath Elion wishes to give special thanks to the heroes who saved the land this night. The Grand Hall has been opened in Minath Elion and in attendance is the princess and the King's adviser to offer their thanks.
-Town Crier shouts: Those who have the Jester's Wand and took part in defeating him tonight can use to the portal in the Chaotic Jester's cave to come here and receive a very special reward. Everyone else is invited to come and partake in drink, food, and good company. The world offers you all, a debt of gratitude.

*a brief time later*

-From within the Great Hall you hear someone utter how this was all Teshuvah's fault. A flurry of: "Hear, Hears!" can be heard in response. Lurking within the shadows, Arilou smiles as his magic once again deflected blame to poor Teshuvah. He stands there for a moment, watching the crowd angrily discuss how this and everything else other the sun is Teshuvah's fault. Then he turns to leave as he has much work ahead of him. After all, lag is not going to create itself.
-The end. *Trumpets blare as the screen fades to black.*