Another useful command that is hard to not spam is ‘who’. It shows the name of the character and their title. Typing who brings up the who list like so.
-Players and High Mortals-
Articut the high master priest
Baldwin Shdednei, Vigilant Eye of God
A ghost
Drakoth the magical inventor
Frey the employed fighter
Gabrielle the low master priestess
Inanna the decimator
Koth the giant killer
Larson the soul snatcher
Laryia the expert trickster
Light the master priestess
Lliira the Joydancer
Margath Relgar, First son of the Bards
Morningstar the new student of nature
Pyros the legend
Tal the novice mage
Tremear the cunning thief
The characters with the custom titles were the high mortals. Currently, high mortal can be obtained by reading level 20. Even in a game made completely out of text players could not resist a chance to bling out their characters to stand out a little bit more. Getting to level 20 was not an easy feat either. Each level required about twice as much experience as the previous. And for whatever reason the experience tables were not the same for each class. It caused the multi classed characters to have levels different between the classes. For example anyone who multiclassed with thief would have a higher thief class then their other classes because it has the lowest experience requirements to level. The player could <pose> a certain class and that would be the title that showed up on the who list. The point remains that the titles have meaning.
Time to try and find a place to advance to level 2/2. Isaiah left the corpses of rats behind and after getting lost in the desert for a while and killing a few more rats made his way back to the crossroads in the center of shadow. This time there was another character sitting in the room and not just rushing to wherever it is that people playing this game are in a hurry to get to.
Light, the master priestess is here.
Light says: “hello”
I was spamming buttons to get back to MAH because there was a board there. I typed advance twice, getting to level 2/2. I stopped to look at my increased HP and noticed that I missed someone trying to greet my character. I backtracked and went back to the crossroads of shadow and saw light was still in the same spot. Lucky for me she wasn’t in a hurry to be someplace.
It took Isaiah’s player a moment to talk in game was to use the <say> command so there was an awkward silence while Isaiah’s player found out things like <hello> wasn’t a valid command. He typed <say hello>
Isaiah says: “Hello”
There was an awkward pause. Classic RPGs like final fantasy or zork didn’t really have much roleplay even though the “R” in rpg means roleplay. Actually interacting with someone in a game in real time was a novel idea at the time. Yes, chat rooms were a thing. But this wasn’t two people on AOL instant messenger cutie2001 chatting with oakley98. Characters could talk, they could emote. They could even steal if they were bards or thieves. If they were so inclined Player Killing was even implemented.
Light says: “Hello there. I’m a simple priestess of Lathander. Nice to meet you.”
Priestess? Could I have encountered the legendary gamer girl? I gulp behind the computer considering the implications. How do I handle this? Don’t screw this up don’t screw this up.
I say, “I’m Isaiah, nice to meet you too!”
I bow.
She curtseys.
Light says: “Are you new here? Lathander’s temple is west of the city. You could join me if you’d like to talk or have any questions.”
An invitation from a priestess? Of course I’m in!
I smile and say, “Of course lead the way.”
You have been invited to follow Light.
Light whispers to you: “Type follow light and you can follow me there.”
I follow light and she heads out the west gates. We passed farmland along the road and a temple. Past that temple we pass what looks to be a run down stronghold. Past that our destination is a bright temple with a gold and white themed interior.
Light says: “Welcome to Lathander’s temple.”
Light bows reverently at the altar.
I say: “It is a nice temple, very divine.”
I internally kick myself for not being able to come up with something better to say.
We continue chatting for a bit and I tell her about my nemesis the rats. She finds this funny. She also brought up that the rats drop gold when they die. To get the gold one has to either offer the corpses or bury them. I didn’t find this funny. Leaving money on the table was not good. I’m a college student. With only a part time job, 29 cent hamburgers and ramen are my lifeline.
She suggests that I try to buy some gear from a vendor in shadow and gives me some money. She also says that I need to train in a weapon with the trainer in shadow if I want to do anything other than hurt myself when I equip it. She informed me that the stronghold we passed on the way here is called the Goblin Stronghold and a good place for starting off. When I told her I was a mage she even added that the goblin witch that is in there can drop a random scroll which I could add to my spellbook. Light is such a nice lady. She gives off a feeling of a caring grandmother. Eventually we part ways and I go back to town and buy a longsword and some leather armor and head towards the goblin stronghold hoping to get gold experience and magic.
The goblin stronghold started one room north of the west road. Two goblin gate guards were in the first room and they auto attacked. Unlike rats, these goblins had gear equipped. They wielded some goblin pikes and wore some goblin boots.
I was expecting my new longsword that light had bought from the weapons store for me to clean these guys up with my 18 strength but it didn’t go that way.
Goblin Gate Guard missed you.
Goblin Gate Guard missed you.
You hit goblin ineffectively.
HP: 19/20
Goblin Gate Guard missed you.
Goblin Gate Guard missed you.
You hit goblin ineffectively.
HP: 18/20
I made a quick escape back to the south. Apparently, I was not getting hit by the goblin likely because of my new leather armor and high dexterity. However, instead of me killing the goblin my attacks were doing 0 damage to the goblin and 1 damage to me. Something was not working right. Taking a moment to collect thoughts it became obvious what the problem was. Light’s advice should have been followed. Light said to go and train with a trainer in shadow with the sword.
Isaiah’s player felt bad. She gave him some good advice and took some time to set him on the right path and he just decided to do his own thing. Well, it was time to fix this right now. Isaiah made his way back to shadow and started going up and down streets. He found a church, a weapon’s shop, a library, a bank, a general store, a healer, and finally a trainer.
The trainer’s name was Masjock and he was a burly man. Looking him over his description ended with a highlighted ‘attack Masjock with the weapon you want to train in’.
You slash Masjock in the right arm.
Masjock tickles you innocently.
HP: 17/20
You stab Masjock in the left leg.
Masjock tickles you innocently.
HP 16/20
You slash masjock in the head.
Masjock tickles you innocently.
HP 15/20
This went on for a while. Not wanting to test if masjock would kill those who came to him for training, the elf left for the next room. It was at this point that having healing spells would have been nice. A wave of regret passed over Isaiah’s player for having given up the priest class. It was not enough to force him to suicide and try to re-create as a fighter/magic/cleric though. Trying to level 3 classes at once just seems like too painful of a grind. However, there was a ‘heal’ command. It was not great, only healing one to four hit points and froze the character in place for a few seconds. Also, it seemed to fail as much as it succeeded. After a couple minutes of mashing ‘heal isaiah’ he was back to full health. Using the command ‘profs’ to check his weapon proficiencies it showed he was at 15%. This was very time consuming. After some painful grinding he got longsword to 100%. However, there was another thing that popped up in the ‘profs’ command.
Your parents taught you in spears and you feel most comfortable with that weapon.
What did that mean? Isaiah decided to try out the gamewide OOC (out of character) line and ask.
Isaiah (OOC): What does it mean your parents taught you spears in your weapon profs?
Someone (OOC): It means you can get spears to 120% in that weapon.
Isaiah (OOC): Are spears good?
Someone (OOC): You’ll just have to find out.
Well that was a bit frustrating. Who is someone? Have to ask Light when I talk to her next. Next up goblin stronghold round two.
The goblin gate guards were not too difficult with a proper weapon. They did a little damage but died. This time Isaiah remembered to bury the corpses before moving it. It gave him a few HP so he didn’t have to go back to using that heal command. Things were going well and in continued into the innermost part of the goblin stronghold.
Goblin King is here.
3 goblin royal guards are here.
Goblin king strikes you in the head strongly
HP: 13\20
Goblin royal guard slashes you with sword.
HP: 9\20
Goblin royal guard slashes you with sword.
HP: 4\20
Goblin royal guard misses you.
You slash goblin with sword.
It was at this point that I froze up and didn’t run away in time.
Goblin king strikes you in the torso.
HP: -2\20
You are at death’s door. Your body is slipping from you.
