Slate Wands

I have a couple of old slate wands in my locker. I wonder if these are rechargeable. 

>analyze wand
You analyze your slate wand and sense that the item is free from merchant alteration restrictions.
You get no sense of whether or not the wand may be further lightened.
>analyze other wand
You analyze your slate wand and sense that the item is free from merchant alteration restrictions.
You get no sense of whether or not the wand may be further lightened.
>pre 405
You gesture and invoke the powers of the elements for the Elemental Detection spell…
Your spell is ready.
>cast at wand
You gesture at a slate wand.
The essence swirls as it flows in a fog of chaotic patterns around the wand.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
(Forcing stance down to guarded)
>pre 405
You gesture and invoke the powers of the elements for the Elemental Detection spell…
Your spell is ready.
>cast at other wand
You gesture at a slate wand.
The essence swirls as it flows in a fog of chaotic patterns around the wand.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

They don’t play nice with 405 like a Thanot Wand so I don’t know how many charges they have.

>cast at wand
You gesture at a pale thanot wand.
You sense that the wand is a magic item that holds the spell “Limb Disruption” with a fair amount of charges.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Old Voln Symbol List

I was looking at some old logs and noticed one of my characters accessed the old Voln Symbol list.

For those who wish to see the old stuff:

Symbol list
Symbols known to you:
Symbol of Recognition
Symbol of Blessing
Symbol of Thought
Symbol of Recovery
Symbol of Courage
Symbol of Protection
Charl’s Throw
Kai’s Punch
Phoen’s Kick
Symbol of Calming
Symbol of Sleep
Symbol of Turning
Symbol of Mana
Symbol of Sight
Symbol of Holiness
Symbol of Submission
Symbol of Restoration
Symbol of Need
Symbol of Retribution
Charl’s Improved Throw
Kai’s Improved Punch
Phoen’s Improved Kick
Symbol of Preservation
Symbol of Dreams
Symbol of Return
Symbol of Invitation

How to get the Deeds done – Wehnimer’s Landing Temple

Deeds are critical to avoiding death’s sting. Obtaining Deeds in The Landing is fairly easy and is one of my favorite places to purchase Deeds.

The basic formula for deeds is:

101 coins for the deed plus your level times 100 plus the current number of deeds times 100.

This formula works in the Landing, River’s Rest, the Caravansary, and Icemule Trace.

There are a couple of caveats, in River’s Rest you may only use gems. In Hearthstone Manor you may use wands but no coins. In the Temple in The Landing, gems are worth triple their value. In Northern Caravansary you may only use items while in Icemule Trace you can use items in addition to wands but no coins.

In Wehnimer’s Landing, the temple accepts silvers and/or gems, and the gems are worth triple their value. This appears to be the best value for your money.

Enter the temple, go through the black arch, go through the tapestry, use the mallet to hit the chime two times then kneel. Drop your gems and coins and hit the chime again.

If you attempt to kneel before hitting the chime twice you will receive a warning. Once complete, you are escorted from the room.

Trivia 1: In the old days, there used to be ONE tapestry and people would line up to use it. You literally had to wait for others to figure out the puzzle.

Trivia 2: The Caravansary sells a Ruby for 5000 coins. By the formula, one Ruby will always be enough for one deed for characters 100 levels or less and having less than 48 deeds. For the 49th deed, you need to drop one coin and for each deed beyond that you need to drop an additional 100 silvers. This is only possible at the temple not the Caravansary’s deed shrine.

Game Mechanic Shafts

Sorcerers are known to have one of the cruelest game mechanic shafts – low strength and/or constitution and a requirement to tote a ton of kit to work spells. Many spells require some sort of component: 740, 735, 725, and 714 just to name the major ones. Bottles, rune stones, ink, paint brushes, pens, chalk and so on.

For this reason, I role play a slightly built sorcerer with glasses and robes. No one should be surprised when he rummages in his backpack for a bottle or sack for some found prize instead of wielding a weapon.

This isn’t the greatest mechanical screw in the game. I think the record holder is the old Tapestry in the Temple, Wehnimer’s Landing’s. Back in the day, the Tapestry was a unique item and space. One character at a time could enter that part of the Temple. So, queue it up and play nice for a deed. Yes, one deed because you were pitched out by the acolytes, just as you are now.

This mechanic was removed years ago, but I still recall the wall of text and line of characters waiting their turn.

Counting Coup

Last night, I was cleaning up some old logs and found my first adventure into The Marsh Keep Area.

Jersea, Moswell, Gutios, Armundia, Sorlu, Spingwell, Khiya Lurrah, Ponrick, Husark and I left the Common’s in search of a mythic fortress in the bog. Following Sorlu, we took a minor detour to Niima’s shrine. Then we promptly got lost.

We were attacked by Necrotic Snakes in the Ghastly Swamps. That doesn’t happen any more, the swamp is just outside of their range now. I am proud to say I am the first Rester to kill a Necrotic Snake. I was also the first to injury a Chimera, which ran for it’s life.

A few minutes later, I got lost and ended up in a running battle with a Tomb Troll Necromancer, a couple of Flesh Golems and a few Tomb Trolls. Fortunately, the group came back for me and handily defeated the Trolls in a truly epic rescue.

Jersea took up the lead as a bard and lore sang many new finds. She pulled knowledge and details unimaginable to us.

Moving deeper into The Keep, we found the Flooded Chamber. The pool with turned out to be an impassable barrier to me. I wished the others well and took up the rear guard position. Armed with a flask, some pretty old songs and my staff I managed to hold the Chamber against hordes of Trolls. I was focused on holding on, I missed the signal. The rest of the party escaped back to town.

My fault, entirely. I went down fighting an uncountable host of Trolls. The rest of the gang escaped back to town.

For the record, I heard that the prize was a book.

Gruesome Feast

I was fighting a Flesh Golem and took it down as a Tomb Troll Necromancer entered the room. Instead of attacking me, it did this:

With a ravenous glint in his eye, a tomb troll necromancer pounces upon the body of a flesh golem and begins feasting on its abdomen. Within seconds, the golem’s midsection is torn asunder and the troll necromancer looks up from his meal with gore dripping down his face. A tomb troll necromancer looks much healthier after consuming his gruesome feast!

I’ve never seen that before. And really don’t want to again.

Astronomy, Elanthian Style

Elanthia is interesting. This world is set in what would be our Middle Ages or slightly before, yet they have developed astronomy due to the weird nature of their satellites.

Examine Stars:
You gaze up into the sky and see a broad field of lights…
An elaborate and expansive pattern of twenty-one stars shines directly overhead through the darkness of the night sky, forming the serpentine coils of a magnificent drake, its raised head framed by a dark indigo nebula. Every star within sparkles with a brilliant silver hue, highlighting the twinkling outline of the regal creature as it drifts its way through the darkness.

Examine Lornon:
You gaze up into the heavens scanning for the moon Lornon…
Lornon drifts through the upper sky as a full perfect circle. Whorls of darker hue shift slowly across the icy disc, their rhythmic swirling nearly blending in completely with the blackness of the sky.

Examine Liabo:

You gaze up into the heavens scanning for the moon Liabo…
Liabo isn’t anywhere to be seen right now.

You gaze up into the heavens scanning for the moon Makiri…
Makiri isn’t anywhere to be seen right now.

You gaze up into the heavens scanning for the moon Tilaok…
Tilaok isn’t anywhere to be seen right now.

No only does the planet have four satellites, they move. The moons play a great part in the history of Elanthia, Lornon is the most prominent moon and the home of the evil Arkati. Liabo, the largest moon, is the home of the good Arkati. Tilaok and Makiri orbit Liabo, not the planet.

In the distant future, Makiri will plunge into the surface of Liabo in a titanic cataclysm. Once a month, Lornon is tinted blood red. The cause of this is unknown. In the distant future, the moon always appears red.

It appears that the world of Elanthia is shared by three game systems – DragonRealms, Gemstone IV and Dragons of Elanthia. Gemstone IV takes place many years before DragonRealms and who knows when Dragons of Elanthia takes place.

Slate Wands - Old Equipment

I have a couple of old slate wands in my locker. I wonder if these are rechargeable.  

>analyze wand
You analyze your slate wand and sense that the item is free from merchant alteration restrictions.
You get no sense of whether or not the wand may be further lightened.
>analyze other wand
You analyze your slate wand and sense that the item is free from merchant alteration restrictions.
You get no sense of whether or not the wand may be further lightened.
>pre 405
You gesture and invoke the powers of the elements for the Elemental Detection spell…
Your spell is ready.
>cast at wand
You gesture at a slate wand.
The essence swirls as it flows in a fog of chaotic patterns around the wand.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.
(Forcing stance down to guarded)
>pre 405
You gesture and invoke the powers of the elements for the Elemental Detection spell…
Your spell is ready.
>cast at other wand
You gesture at a slate wand.
The essence swirls as it flows in a fog of chaotic patterns around the wand.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

They don’t play nice with 405 like a Thanot Wand so I don’t know how many charges they have. 

>cast at wand
You gesture at a pale thanot wand.
You sense that the wand is a magic item that holds the spell “Limb Disruption” with a fair amount of charges.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

River’s Rest and Dust

I was wondering why there was so much dust in River’s Rest. It turns out that River’s Rest is modeled on Andalusia in Spain.

Andalusia is a Mediterranean climate and experiences both torrential rains and cool dry spells. This was revealed by Scribes on the forum.

Perhaps the image on the left is the hills where the Kakore was harvested for my runestaff.

I think it is wonderful.

The current descriptions go back to Bradach and Jineer. They gave the town a dry and dusty flavor, with vague hints of Middle Eastern Culture. I would describe it as Moorish, but Middle Eastern fits, too.

Another possible Easter egg in the town is the inexplicable model ship available at Bertha’s. It might have been modeled on the ship in MYST, however no clear evidence of this exists. There is a couple of ships in the River’s Rest environ’s, so this could be completely independent of the MYST ship.