The Band needs a name, it has always been the Band of the White Cross, but with the Order of the White Cross having disappeared seems like a bit of a relic, maybe when we rename the Rune Guard and give that company some meaning I'll ally the War Band with them. We'll see. Or we can just keep them as the Band of the White Cross.
It's about time we had a War Band update and I've been reluctant because an update tends to be followed by the Band being wiped. But the current incarnation has survived over a week so... let me present them to you, a few old favorites but most of them are relatively new.
Prince Gavadel of Amber (level 77 Attuned Knight of the Round Table, Prince of Amber, Losthaven Guard, Steel Serpent, Neophyte Warden, Summachos of the Pantarchic Church of Yehovah). Gavadel first and foremost is a Prince of Amber, everything else is second. But he takes his obligations seriously to the cities he's allied with. He's also recently been asked to lead the Rune Guard but he isn't happy with the setup and is considering a reform.
Colonel Ruburnel (level 48 Knight Templar and Verynvelrae): Actually unbonded now from his eagle, Ruburnel is currently suffering from a speech defect which makes his duties as Gavadel's right hand man a little difficult. But what he lacks in words he makes up for in fighting prowess with his vorpal blade. Besides Gavadel himself he's the best warrior in the group and the single best champion of the Knights Templar. Ruburnel's mellowed considerably since he was first assigned to Gavadel as his liason with the Pantarchic Church. Experience outside the life of the Cathedral of Camille has opened his eyes to the ways of the world.
Fledge (level 39 pegasus): Gavadel's trusted mount and gives him access to various charms in maintaining and protecting the war band.
Squire Kernele (level 15 Squire): Gavadel's current squire, following in the footsteps of Dame Yennarin. She isn't looking forward to being a Knight to be honest after seeing that all her predecessors including Yennarin have fallen in the defense of Camelot.
Captain Nerus (level 29 Knight of the Round Table): Gavadel's aide from Camelot and he leads the yeomen. The Knight takes his role seriously and is as righteous and full of pride as Ruburnel once was when he joined Gavadel's side. Ruburnel can't help but smile knowingly at Nerus's blustering sometimes.
Sergeant Galidan (level 16 yeoman): Deals with the practical day to day running of the Band, acting as quartermaster and takes care of the pegasi. Surprisingly he's also an ace hand-to-hand fighter and picked up a mithril claw following Gavadel. He's put it to good use in the defense of the Prince. Rumour has it he wouldn't mind joining the Knights of the Round Table himself, but his choice of weapon will make that difficult.
Corporal Demmill (level 15 yeoman): He was once a lacklustre swordsman, but gave it up when Gavadel presented him with a hyperium two-handed axe. And he's proven himself to be a master of the weapon. He's still sometimes prone to stealing but Gavadel's influence seems to be putting a stop to it. A fault he shares with the last member of the Band.
Bannerman Aradis (level 15 Bannerman): Gavadel's bannerman, though once a spearman. The youngest member of the group, but he's proven himself a solid defender of the Prince's honor, despite once being prone to the occasional theft of items left around him.
Poseiden (level 29 drake): The heavy artillery of the group and currently Gavadel's mount. She's protected by a stone of perpetuation and is prone to protecting the Prince when he doesn't mount her. It has seen her fall in combat more than once, if not for the gem she'd be dead by now.
The Mounts: Sorrel, Gray, Snowmane, Snowdrop and Augustus, all around level 16 other than Snowdrop. Augustus was a veteran of Kentaur Isle as we found out when the dragon chasing him met with the Band and almost led to the death of Gray and then Squire Yennarin. Pegasi are useful mounts but because of their wings being a weakspot have almost led to the demise of members of the Band on more than one occasion.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Steel Serpents
I said I'd write about this in my next post, but since there was the disaster on Ry'leh I wrote about that instead.
The Steel Serpents have, as long as I have played this MUD been an NPC organisation that always looked kinda cool. A bunch of battle-hardened soldiers protecting a small city in fairly abandoned lands, protecting themselves from raptorak raiders who hit the town pretty often. Corna itself is one of the best little adventuring towns out there. I'm aware I haven't done all the quests or even come close, but that place has ATMOSPHERE. I was always sad I couldn't ally myself to it or the Steel Serpents.
Twilight just off-the-cuff changed that. The Steel Serpents are now a joinable affiliation with their elite Equites, a cavalry guild which are ALL ABOUT WARBANDS!
You can see the dilemma.
For the first time since I joined the Knights I was actually tempted to find a way to leave them and switch over to Twi's guild. The problem was theme, although a lot of what I heard about the guild made it sound a lot like at least one of the factions I'd envisaged for the long awaited KOTR rewrite, there were a few problems, not the least of which they weren't the Knights of Avalon. Gav although he went through a few guilds in his youth has been a Knight of the Round Table for most of his career. And although I might have wanted him to switch that allegiance to Corna, he wouldn't have it. Besides, Twi pointed out I'd have yet another Bond, and this time to a horse which wouldn't really fit my aerial cavalry theme. So... we'll get by with the Knights. I have compromised and at least joined the Steel Serpents, Avalon's representative and ally with Corna when they need it.
I do hope other people DO join the Equites and we see more War Bands around, they are fun to manage and there is a definite satisfaction in exercises like yesterday's retaking of the gogtzulu city. And please, please can someone work on that knight rewrite I was promised about two years ago now?
The Steel Serpents have, as long as I have played this MUD been an NPC organisation that always looked kinda cool. A bunch of battle-hardened soldiers protecting a small city in fairly abandoned lands, protecting themselves from raptorak raiders who hit the town pretty often. Corna itself is one of the best little adventuring towns out there. I'm aware I haven't done all the quests or even come close, but that place has ATMOSPHERE. I was always sad I couldn't ally myself to it or the Steel Serpents.
Twilight just off-the-cuff changed that. The Steel Serpents are now a joinable affiliation with their elite Equites, a cavalry guild which are ALL ABOUT WARBANDS!
You can see the dilemma.
For the first time since I joined the Knights I was actually tempted to find a way to leave them and switch over to Twi's guild. The problem was theme, although a lot of what I heard about the guild made it sound a lot like at least one of the factions I'd envisaged for the long awaited KOTR rewrite, there were a few problems, not the least of which they weren't the Knights of Avalon. Gav although he went through a few guilds in his youth has been a Knight of the Round Table for most of his career. And although I might have wanted him to switch that allegiance to Corna, he wouldn't have it. Besides, Twi pointed out I'd have yet another Bond, and this time to a horse which wouldn't really fit my aerial cavalry theme. So... we'll get by with the Knights. I have compromised and at least joined the Steel Serpents, Avalon's representative and ally with Corna when they need it.
I do hope other people DO join the Equites and we see more War Bands around, they are fun to manage and there is a definite satisfaction in exercises like yesterday's retaking of the gogtzulu city. And please, please can someone work on that knight rewrite I was promised about two years ago now?
Friday, February 12, 2010
Disaster on Ry'leh
The Band was coming along quite nicely for once. Five yeomen, a drake, nine pegasi, a knight and of course Ruburnel. And we've done the raid on Ry'leh more than a few times. We know the drill. I defend the Band, they whittle down the gogtzul. I have to defend the Band because them gogtzul will tear them apart in a round or two. But it's hard to take me down when I'm on full defensive and with Yrenasand, man I'm tough.
Fledge isn't.
She wimpied on me and fled. And without me defending the Band in the round or two it took me to get things under control again, the Band was scattered and/or dead. Me and Ruburnel fought on as long as we could over the bodies of our compatriots, but the gogtzul not only swarmed but were regenerating. Ruburnel covered my escape, knowing that I held the stones and the charms to bring back as many of our followers as we could. I retreated back to the beach where I caught my breath. I realised as well that through some error I'd left my drake's stone actually on the drake. I'd misnamed Trije's stone as the drakestone and on activating it I prematurely activated my squire. I summoned my other charms and waited for Fledge and Ruburnel to rejoin me. We considered retreating and licking our wounds but there was one major problem. The gogtzul held the Battle Standard of Prince Gavadel of Amber. And that was just not acceptable. Our small rag tag band once again reclimbed the slopes to the city. Two pegasi, ruburnel, nerus (now one-armed), my squire (now without protection), and two yeomen. We charged the city and were soon outnumbered once more as the gogtzuli swarmed our small band. But despite the tiredness and fatigue the Band fought on, Squire Trije whom we all thought would make it to Knight fell on the field.
As the battle raged on, my eye fell on a peridot, knowing this to be my missing stone I reached for it, claimed it and recalled my drake back into the fight. The battle last well over half an hour, but eventually the city was ours. And there, lying in the blood, was our Standard. Ruburnel claimed it and insisted on carry it back to Avalon.
When I have the time, I need to once again recruit a squire, though I fear they'll be more reluctant. And of course, comb the skies above Kentaur Isle to mount the Band once more.
Fledge isn't.
She wimpied on me and fled. And without me defending the Band in the round or two it took me to get things under control again, the Band was scattered and/or dead. Me and Ruburnel fought on as long as we could over the bodies of our compatriots, but the gogtzul not only swarmed but were regenerating. Ruburnel covered my escape, knowing that I held the stones and the charms to bring back as many of our followers as we could. I retreated back to the beach where I caught my breath. I realised as well that through some error I'd left my drake's stone actually on the drake. I'd misnamed Trije's stone as the drakestone and on activating it I prematurely activated my squire. I summoned my other charms and waited for Fledge and Ruburnel to rejoin me. We considered retreating and licking our wounds but there was one major problem. The gogtzul held the Battle Standard of Prince Gavadel of Amber. And that was just not acceptable. Our small rag tag band once again reclimbed the slopes to the city. Two pegasi, ruburnel, nerus (now one-armed), my squire (now without protection), and two yeomen. We charged the city and were soon outnumbered once more as the gogtzuli swarmed our small band. But despite the tiredness and fatigue the Band fought on, Squire Trije whom we all thought would make it to Knight fell on the field.
As the battle raged on, my eye fell on a peridot, knowing this to be my missing stone I reached for it, claimed it and recalled my drake back into the fight. The battle last well over half an hour, but eventually the city was ours. And there, lying in the blood, was our Standard. Ruburnel claimed it and insisted on carry it back to Avalon.
When I have the time, I need to once again recruit a squire, though I fear they'll be more reluctant. And of course, comb the skies above Kentaur Isle to mount the Band once more.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Ch ch changes...
I kept meaning to update this, but the changes kept coming and I was waiting on the next one before posting and then the next, then the next and it's been a week now that I should have updated something here.
Donation items came through, though hopefully two of those will soon be available to Knights in general. The first though was a bond to Ruby, who I think earned it the poor sap. Like my bond to Fledge, the original idea is a permanent follower I can breathe easier about, but like Fledge he's come with some nice bonuses. We have some kinda mad skill-synergy thing going and that Templar probably rivals some low level amberites in his skills and attributes these days. He's gone from level 34 to 43 and he seems to gain a new level every other run session. Amberiteish skills with a human assim is scary. The other two items were a knight follower (welcome Captain Nerus) and a Battle Standard which a yeoman can wield and gives bonuses to your group, courage, tenacity, tactics, etc. It's more about theme than actual power, but every little bonus helps. They should be released soonish I think for the general knight population. The other idea I mentioned to Chaos was the option of keeping your knighted squire in your group. As I outlined it, the tradeoff would be you don't get that bonus xp on his reaching knighthood, but you get to keep a level 25 knight follower you've trained his whole career. Be nice if this was implemented, but no timeframe on it other than Chaos thought it was a nice idea. (Could be tomorrow, could be never, but more likely somewhere inbetween).
With the new bond setup I was able to leave the VV, the whole idea of being a ranger was to have Fledge. Now, we've left the guild but we can maintain the bond. There is a loss of some stuff there and future changes to the VV won't affect Fledge. So whatever skinning, crafting or other abilities, specs, or whatever you get won't be applied to us.
I've also left the Wandslingers to join the Steel Serpents. I'll talk more about this in my next post.
Donation items came through, though hopefully two of those will soon be available to Knights in general. The first though was a bond to Ruby, who I think earned it the poor sap. Like my bond to Fledge, the original idea is a permanent follower I can breathe easier about, but like Fledge he's come with some nice bonuses. We have some kinda mad skill-synergy thing going and that Templar probably rivals some low level amberites in his skills and attributes these days. He's gone from level 34 to 43 and he seems to gain a new level every other run session. Amberiteish skills with a human assim is scary. The other two items were a knight follower (welcome Captain Nerus) and a Battle Standard which a yeoman can wield and gives bonuses to your group, courage, tenacity, tactics, etc. It's more about theme than actual power, but every little bonus helps. They should be released soonish I think for the general knight population. The other idea I mentioned to Chaos was the option of keeping your knighted squire in your group. As I outlined it, the tradeoff would be you don't get that bonus xp on his reaching knighthood, but you get to keep a level 25 knight follower you've trained his whole career. Be nice if this was implemented, but no timeframe on it other than Chaos thought it was a nice idea. (Could be tomorrow, could be never, but more likely somewhere inbetween).
With the new bond setup I was able to leave the VV, the whole idea of being a ranger was to have Fledge. Now, we've left the guild but we can maintain the bond. There is a loss of some stuff there and future changes to the VV won't affect Fledge. So whatever skinning, crafting or other abilities, specs, or whatever you get won't be applied to us.
I've also left the Wandslingers to join the Steel Serpents. I'll talk more about this in my next post.
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