Things are changing in the guild. Most noticeable is that our Website no longer exists. A new one is being build, by Pallanen and Swirlin. But for the moment, we will have a temporary forum set up at http://thedoombrigade.freeforums.org/

Please register there and we will keep you informed of the new site as it develops.

Thank you. Semper Brigadus.

And so, our tracks lead us up and down, up and down. If this were a roller coaster, it would be a top draw at my old place of work.

In the last week, we have made some new friends, lost some others, and seen the return of two old ones. I want to welcome as new members Saedis, Vanskalle, and Aganon. I hope that you enjoy being a part of our family. One of our members, Levi, has finally returned to his native land in Hungary. While we may joke a little about things being somewhat backward in lands behind the former Iron Curtain, it isn’t that Hungary has no Internet that prevents Glew from staying with us, but rather his school’s policy regarding Internet use for frivality (like MMORPGs) that is the culprit. We will miss him. In addition, recently named officer Valaneshka has found that too many things are preventing her from performing duties in the guild, so she has decided to leave us for a more casual solo gaming experience. We will miss her also. I know that I will.

Forum Administrator Santus has reconsidered his decision to leave the guild and has rejoined us, which made me happy. And along with Santus, another of the Doom Brigade’s founding members, Brontos is back. I spent an evening engaged in /tells with Brett (whose Officer status was immediately reinstated) so we could get to know one another. A lot has changed since Brontos had left DDO, both in the game and in the guild, and I hope that he will contribute to our regrowth.

At this writing, the Doom Brigade is just thiiiiiiiiis close to reaching our goal of hitting Guild Level 20 and attaining our airship. The launching of the HMS Whateverwenameher is just a stone’s throw away, and I look forward to smacking the bow with a champagne bottle.

On a side note, I notice that my name as Leader of the guild on this page has changed back to Envin. Well, I am still in charge of things (so to speak). I promised that I would stay, and I am holding myself to that promise as long as the guild continues to accept me.

Kinda short, but I am feeling a little under the weather at the moment, so that will be it for this week’s blog. Seeyas in seven!

Well… I know that it has been about two weeks since my last blog, but this was a hard one to write, and I really wasn’t sure how I was going to approach it. That, coupled with a bit of intense work schedule reshuffling left me a little frazzled. But… here it is.

Since the last issue of The Brigade Dispatch, there has been some good news and some heartaches. First, let me start by saying a fond farewell to Glew, who has been a good friend and officer. Glew returns to his native Hungary to continue school, and although he will have ‘Net access, it is limited in a way that won’t allow him to follow such frivolous pursuits as MMOs. We wish you all the best, Glew. And we hope that you use the Guild Forum to keep in touch.

Speaking of our Forum website, there is a big change there also. Founding member and forum administrator Santus has left us as well. He is still the website’s admin for the moment, but he is in the process of turning the site over to new officer (and longtime Brigadier) Pallanen. Another of our officers, Chorya, will be working as a co-admin (once her Holiday is up). It is with a lot of confidence that I say the website will continue to be the great guild asset that it always has been. On a personal note, I wish Santus had chosen not to leave, but his mind is made up to do this.

Also leaving us is Prinjada, a former Guild Leader who, along with a couple of other members, has decided to join one of the guilds specializing in European members. It is unfortunate, because although our own Euro population has grown somewhat, it is now further hurt by this, which will make it that much more difficult for our newer Euro members to find playing partners. It is a cycle that is very hard to break, and I and my remaining fellow officers are trying our best to do just that. The same holds true for our members who have higher level characters.

But it is not all bleakness and dark clouds. We recently added several new members: Rebster, Breanne, Kercheis, and Swirlin have all become Brigadiers. I welcome you to our ranks. In addition, it is also with pleasure that I announce our newest officer, Valaneshka. Val is an excellent RPer, and it is my hope that she will help prod us all into doing a little more to bring the “lite RP” back into the Doom Brigade.

Our PvP Tournament has been bitten by the Schedule Bug. It seems that it is hard sometimes to get even two people together for something. But in the first round, Astrik handed your Queen her Royal Tushie. In addition, Becoming handily defeated Chorya. So gratz to Astrik and Becoming for advancing to the next round.

Other than that, it has been questing as usual for the members of the Doom Brigade. We are now at Guild Level 18, and about half way to GL19 when I last checked. The time is coming soon, and I have already begun looking at curtains to hang on the portholes. With that little tidbit, I will put this edition to rest. Seeyas in…well…hopefully seven! /crossfingers

Hiyas, and welcome to the twentieth edition of the Doom Brigade’s Dispatch, our (more-or-less) weekly telling of the goings-on in the guild.

Well, first and foremost, we were mentioned in the Eberron Chronicle as the featured guild for the second time! I’m not sure, but I don’t think that has ever been done before. So raise a glass and salut!

We are about to get ready to start our little PvP Tournament. Guild members Gnorbert, Prinjada, Chorya, Becoming, Astrik, and myself have agreed to be the first gladiators thrown into the Pit of Combat and see how the tournament goes. If it is successful (and fun) then we will do more. Pallanen is planning to run a guild-only Tempest Spine raid this coming Friday, with the purpose of teaching our members how that raid goes. Personally, I am really looking forward to this as I am sent /tells in the game constantly from people asking Beladi to go on their TS raids (which I usually turn down mainly because I know from the one time I did it that it is very fast paced and I have no desire to let any group down, even a PuG).

I got a note recently from Santus that he has just reached 10th Level. This is especially a gratz-worthy event because Sotiris normally plays Santus as a solo, and getting through those mid-level quests solo is one heckuva feat! My own namesake Beladi just hit lucky Level 13 while exploring the Sands with Fellowship Alliance members (we did Offering of Blood in the Vulkoorim Spiral and then a bit of gnoll and undead hunting in the wilderness).

Our newest guild member is Jeccalyn, and I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time with her running Fresshen The Air, the Depths series in House D, and Tears of Dhakaan (which is a very long quest that I have never actually done before). She performed quite well for such a young player and has a good RP style that made the long quest enjoyable. I hope we get to quest again together soon.

Well, that’s about all I have to say for this week. The guild rises slowly but steadily towards our airship (we stand at GL17 right now) and I hope for a big renown point push from Pallanen’s scheduled raid event. It has been about a month since I became the guild leader, and we haven’t crashed and burned into the endless Abyss yet, so my confidence that I might actually be able to do this job grows. Now if only the Guild Profile above would reflect that. I love Jason dearly, but if I am going to be the Queen, I should at least get the perk of seeing my name in lights! Grrrrr…

Seeyas in seven (or thereabouts)!

Sitting…. sitting…. sitting….

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

*click click clickity-click click*

Oh my god… it’s ALIVE!!!!!

Hiyas all! It’s Beladi again with the What’s New in the Doom Brigade. As of this writing, we are slowly but steadily rising in guild level. We are at GL15 now, getting close to 16 and one step closer to our airship. We got a big boost from Kelemen recently when he, Veq, and Shiindyra were questing in Ataraxia and managed to pull an 1000 renown Legendary Victory while questing. Great job, guys! Chorya reported to me (a little late, but… /shrugs) that her character reached level 11 during a Tangleroot Gorge run with Kalalu and Ragnarokr.

We have a new member, in Valaneshka’s UO friend Alkazaralk. I performed another induction ceremony for Alkazar and for Val also (in her alt guise Elsabetha). So let me once again say Welcome to our newest friend. Elz, Alk, and Glew’s alt Otello have been adventuring around House Denieth sewer Depths, having a good ol’ time. I had a chance to start Necropolis, adventuring with Elsabetha myself (using Jysurra). We fought against the mummy Khnumhotep in the Tomb of the Crimson Heart, and I have to say that Valaneshka is one of the best roleplayers that I have quested with.

The Doom Brigade is planning a Player-vs-Player tournament in the coming weeks. Officer Glew is spearheading this event. He wants to have two separate contests, one for new level 4 characters (using non-magical weapons and armor) and one for established characters. Details can be found in the Events section of the Doom Brigade’s website (at www.thedoombrigade.eu). Any and all members interested in running around the arena bashing heads are welcome. Where else will you have an opportunity to layeth the smackdown on your new Queen and her officers?

Speaking of officers, I want to take the opportunity to welcome Pallanen to the Officers Corp. Pallanen has been a long-time member of the Brigade, and I expect that he will be a big help to us (once he finishes trudging through the sea of officers’ postings in the forums). Gratz again, Pally!

If you visit our guild’s website, you may notice a couple of changes. Forum admin Santus has been making some improvements. We have decided to drop the Class Table that listed what professions are more desireable to the guild. In its place, Santus has set up a listing of our recent member additions, so that others can see the names of our proud new recruits. Santus has also set up a Creativity Corner in the forums, which shows screenshots of our members as the quest around Stormreach and other artwork, plus excerpts from the stories authored by various Brigadiers. Next time that you are at the site, check out the goodies in Creativity Corner.

Well, that’s it for this week. Sorry about the delay, but I am getting ready for my birthday weekend so I have been a tad busy. Seeyas next week and thanks for tuning in!

Here we are at the four-month mark, since I started doing this back in the middle of March. What a crazy ride it’s been.

Well, a week has gone by since I became the Leader of the Brigade (even if the profile doesn’t reflect it yet ) and the Apocolypse has not destroyed us yet… So I’m going to Disney World!

(Well, actually I’m going next weekend as part of my birthday. Maybe. Or maybe Disney can kiss my rear and I’ll go someplace else instead. Haven’t decided.)

Anyway, the newly installed chat channel is doing nicely. We have three guilds logged in on it. Ours (of course), the Palantiri (with Mosby and Callasta, and Envinyatar also now) and The Guild of Calamitous Intent, which just joined us. Calamitous Intent is headed up by a former Doom Brigader named Skarro, and we are very happy to have his people with us.

The Brigade moves along toward its goal of reaching level 20 and getting our guild airship. As of last night, we had reached GL14. The pace has slowed a bit, as it will when the renown point requirements rise with each succeeding level, but I have an idea or two to pass by the guild officers to try and spur it along.

I have pretty much given up hope on my tickertape machine. It seems to have gotten lost in the mail, and Customer Service (which apparently is based in the New Dehli suburb of Detroit, Michigan) has been useless. So I am going to have to find some other way to get info out of my fellow guild members as to what has been happening to them. Of course, seeing as how I am Queen now, maybe I can have a few of them sent to the Royal Tortu… er, I mean… umm… never mind.

Santus has made a couple of changes to the website’s appearance. Gone is the old (outdated) list of needed character classes from the Welcome page. It has been replaced with a window celebrating our newest guild members. Speaking of which, I want to welcome Tinskin to the family as our latest recruit.

Following up last week’s story from Valaneshka, I’d like to share the work of another writer. Santus is an author whose stories are sometimes dark and gritty. He also tends to interweave his characters stories with each other, which is something that is pretty neat. His namesake character, Santus Brightblade, was a cleric who (during the course of another RP story that we did) fell into madness and then perished. Crysanea was his friend, confidante, and lover. She has been having a hard time with Santus’ death, and has lost her own Faith. What follows is an excerpt from her “Metamorphosis”

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Tracking the time was of no essence anymore… once the heart loses the purpose of its beating and the mind roosts in lack of will to live; not many things really matter.
Time was not the only reason though; that the small wooden windows were tightly shut depriving the dusty half wrecked room from sunlight; it was also painful to her weary from crying eyes. She did not want to see colors; she wanted everything to be grizzle from the darkness; just like her soul was since the day she buried him. Even her red hair was annoying and thus was dyed black. Everything he had touched was now lying broken on the flour; to resemble how he had made her feel; how he was manipulated to make her feel. She prayed for strength to her God at first and when that proved to be fruitless she chose oblivion through drunkenness but even that did not sooth the waking nightmares that tormented her. The last bottle of ale was lying broken on the floor dried out but all she could see while looking at it was the perfect weapon to end this misery she had befell.

All her acquaintances and friends seemed like they had forgotten about her; though in truth nobody really wanted to risk a bruise by her fists or an offended heart by her words; exemplified by the first few who dared approach to offer their compassion. Only a sinister and secretive Drow had visited the last couple of days; asking for him; amplifying the pain to unbearable measures. She had definitely lost her path after that; her rage driven mind had broken loose of everything that characterized her so far to the point of cursing her very own God. Now all she craved for was her death; but not just like that; not by a broken glass driven by her own hand; she wanted an honorable death; a death in battle. She got up on her feet and started preparing. She did not intend to use her own gear though as piece by piece they were blessed by Pelor’s divine light thus she despised them and in addition she wanted to give her opponents the advantage in their effort to take her down and finalize her misery. She wore simple leather pants and wrapped her bare chest with a piece of cloth rendering her stomach and neck to be easy targets for fatal hits; nor did she pack any divine spell components. The only decent piece of gear that she wanted with her was her Father’s greatsword which was carefully tucked in a chest since the day he died. Picking up the sword she removed it from its sheath; shivering by the clean metal sound it produced with every inch she revealed and admired the fine craftsmanship with which it was created; its sheath was tossed aside as she did not want to carry any unnecessary weight and exited the house in a hurry.
———————————————————————–

Very good bit of work, Santus.

That’s it for this edition. RL is intruding, and I have to run off and see about having a picture framed. (Yeah, I know about the Save Draft button, but I already used it once and I hate to do so again.) So, seeyas in seven!

Hiyas!

Hmm… crazy week, especially the last few days… Where to begin…

How about…Long live the Queen?

Due to a very unfortunate chain of events, the Brigade suffered through another tempestuous storm, and when the dust settled, this bardic maid found herself wearing the crown. Although it was next to the LAST thing I wanted, it is now my hand on the tiller, trying to guide us into calm waters and smooth sailing once again. And I intend to do just that, with the help of those friends and officers who have stayed with me. We have made a couple of changes, but we will continue to strengthen and grow.

One thing that we have done just recently is to create a custom chat channel that will be shared with other like-minded guilds (like the Palantiri). This was Envinyatar’s idea initially, and I am glad to see it through. With it, we will be able to communicate better with other groups and individuals, to arrange for quest and raid groupings when we find ourselves not strong enough for an immediate task.

The Brigade should be (as of this posting) Level 12, and we continue towards our goal of getting an airship at a steady pace. Although we were planning on holding out to Level 50 and a Windspyre Falcon, uncertainty about whether we can even get a Falcon without having to get the smaller Sparrow first has prompted us to change course, and I expect to break a bottle across the bow of our ship within a week or two. Maybe three. A little higher drop-rate on Impressive Trophies would sure help here. As of the last time I looked at the Guild Leaderboard, we were number 76 out of about 700 active guilds on Cannith. Not too bad, but I would really love to see us in the top 25, so we have a big task ahead.

Among our latest new recruits is Toternell “Toty” Smoothfellow, Madbull, and Naremos. I had the pleasure of being asked to conduct an induction ceremony for Naremos, right before the crown fell out of the virtual sky to land smack on my head. That certainly was an interesting introduction for Naremos to the Brigade.

In mentioning Toty, I want you to enjoy the following little piece of writing. Valaneshka, who is also new to us, does some nice work as an author, and has agreed to let me excerpt one of her stories. What follows is the thoughts of Val, who accompanied Jysurra and Bulkee as we did an orientation run for Toty, doing the Swiped Signet quest…

————————————————————————————————

Rippling with iridescent green light, the marketplace fountain beat against its smooth stone lips, threatening to spill the moon onto the dusty stones by Valaneshka’s feet. Stuttering into view, a circling airship swathed in green fairy dust collided with Eberron’s moon and came out the other side unscathed. Smiling, Val spoiled the illusion. Dipping her finger into the mirror, the world distorted, wavered, bled to her toes. Looking over her shoulder, the moon smiled and the air ship puttered off to starrier skies.

This is the illusion of perfection. Something I am not good at portraying.

Neither the garish orange lights of the marketplace nor the creepy music that sprawled out of House Phirlarn’s carnival could humor her this night. When she was a company of one, her sword’s dance lived in her feet. Kobold? No problem. Talk the to sword about a job. But now, in a company of five, the glitter was fading. Reality, cold and unyielding, was moving in hard.

I am not what I believed myself to be.

Deposing the humorlessly titled Quickfoot Gang and slicing their henchman to shreds sounded like taking candy from three ugly dwarven babies. But that’s not how it played out. First was the acid spray–trap unavoidable ; second, the trundling spiders–poisons galore; and last, Quinn himself. Quin the Man. Quinicus Maximus. But that man was like any other rogue-king. Sewer dweller gone mad with power–O, the horror, the horror. Tinhorns like that found their demise in Eberron every day, thus watching his arrogant smile melt to a funeral frown was a hedonistic thrill to Val.

But I had little to do with that death. Lurking in the shadows, I found it difficult to leave them. My skin yet tingled with acid, the spiders still crawled in my mind. What’s the use? I can’t lie to myself anymore. I was a coward. Of little use to my guild or myself.

This was her third run for profit with the ardent members of The Doom Brigade–one of Eberron’s more powerful guilds. The leader and her followers had been on the mark, on the money, well practiced. But me? Odd girl out. I couldn’t find the old energy, the old belief in myself. What went so wrong? How in Khyber did something so simple as swipe a signet go so horribly south for me?

Sparkling with green smiles again, the fountain’s stage returned for a second act. Spreading themselves out across velvet, white diamonds glittered and danced like starfish on parade; the airship sputtered into view, cruising the depths for celestial answers to cosmic questions.

The leader and her apt combat skills had left an impression on her, true; and the towering automaton, striding fearlessly into the shadows to crack skulls? Yes, second impression. He is a symbol of power, strength I must achieve? And of the new pledge? The halfling rogue? A synonym for stealth–tempered patience.

She had so much to learn from them all.
————————————————————————————————

Nicely done, Val.

In closing, I just wanted to say Good Luck to Envinyatar, Pommel, and Jessiko. I honestly wish that the three of you hadn’t left, but we all do what we feel we must. I won’t say anything more about it.

Seeyas all in seven (or thereabouts).

Hiyas!

Well, my new tickertape machine still hasn’t come yet, and rather than bore you all with more stuff about me, I will keep it short and sweet. Update 5 arrived, and already our guild members are hard at work trying to raise our Guild Level. Leader Envinyatar has told the guild that he would like to bypass the Windspyre Sparrow airship and go straight for the larger Falcon. The game mechanics may prevent that; we aren’t sure if you have to get the smaller ship first (two different sources give two different answers), but after the rocky start from Turbine (the Guild Renown system shut down after the first day for a period of about 48 hours) we are chugging along, with our guild at almost Level 9 as of my last log-off (we need GL50 for the Falcon, and GL20 for the smaller Sparrow). And thanks to a HUGELY generous donation on the part of Envin, as well as large donations from myself and others, we are about half-way to the platinum goal of 3.6 million needed for the Falcon airship (we could buy three Sparrows right now, and almost get the fourth). Every member of the Brigade is working hard to get renown points; many of us giving up endquest rewards to select the renown sigils that are sometimes offered by the quest givers.

The Brigade has welcomed several new members into our ranks over the last two weeks. Vaidd and his lady fair Lualin have become a part of the family, as well as Valaneshka (a new entertaining author on our own website), Kalalu, and Xavtiln. Members Mosby and Callasta, who came to DDO from Lord of the Rings Online (where Mosby headed the guild there) have left us to join their transplanted LOTRO guild (the Palantiri) but both have continued to team with Brigadiers, along with other members of their guild. Envin plans to create a new chat channel that will be available to us, the Palantiri, and any other guilds that we develop close ties with. This will allow members of all the allied guilds a means of communicating with each other and setting up quests together.

I want to take a second to welcome Chorya to the officership of the Brigade. Like I did oh so long ago (was it really only March?) Chorya has impressed the guild’s leadership with her gung-ho attitude and desire to help in a very short time, and the veteran officers like Santus and Envin see a lot of potential for her in the future. Gratz!

I know that I said I didn’t want to talk about my own character’s news, but I have to thank Jessiko, Glew and Envinyatar (along with Mosby and Callasta and Peter from the Palantiri, and also some PuG players like Gutz, Diego and Aztec) for helping me with some quests these last few days. Beladi has now been flagged for the Vault of Night raid, completed the Threnal Ruins quest chain (and got my Worldshaper cloak), and made Level 12 along the way. Hugs to all for the fun runs!

Maybe not as short and sweet as I thought it would be when I started typing this, but another issue put to bed. Hopefully, I will finally get that tickertape machine this week and get some news from the other players. Even if I don’t, I think I will share an excerpt from one of Valaneshka’s stories with you next time. She is really quite good.

Seeyas next time!

Hiyas, and thanks for tuning in…

My old tickertape machine went belly-up this week, and I requisitioned a newer one. So I figured I would mention a big development on the part of one of my OWN characters. Illiamdril, my elvish paladin, reached level 7 a couple of days ago, which allowed me (finally) to give her a +3 Wisdom necklace so that her WIS score is now high enough to cast spells. But the really COOL thing is that, just prior to her passing the level 7 mark, I took the Advanced Belief: Undying Call enhancement that allows Illiamdril to Raise Dead (a level 5 divine spell that clerics don’t even receive before level 9 and Favored Souls won’t see until level 10). An ability rather than a spell, it has a cooldown time of about 10 minutes. But being able to bring a dead companion back to life as early as level 6 has a certain appeal!

This week, Astrik joined the ranks of the Doom Brigade as our newest member. Astrik comes from the Netherlands, and our international membership has increased quite a bit over the last few weeks. The Brigade has members from over a dozen countries now, with representatives from Greece, Finland, Sweden, Croatia, Poland, England, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, and Spain. I think we also have members from Germany and Turkey as well. We are well represented by US members of course, as well as Canada and Quebec (which thinks of itself as a separate country). I apologize if I missed anyone’s nation of origin.

While strumming my lute for tips at the Open Palm Inn, I managed to learn more about that drow tribe from south of the city. A young drow male and his female companion arrived in Stormreach recently, seeking the whereabouts of a cleric named Santus (a very sad tale that one, which I may tell in the future). The two drow, Reyl’tar and Hael’ra, had been members of the Cor’mrael clan, a tribe whose leader was slain in battle with another tribe. One rumor that I heard, however, has it that Omar’eth was murdered by his rival Vuz’tyrr, who leads now as head of the newly-named Ken’rae clan. Reyl’tar is the son of Omar’eth, and Hael’ra is the daughter of Vuz’tyrr; they are both being sought by the new clan leader. To add a further twist to this tale, a recently-freed Bloodbound gladiator named Jy’surra (who was also a member of the Cor’mrael before her capture by slavers a year ago) has begun seeking the lovers herself, though for good or ill, I do not know. (On a side note, I made a small fortune wagering on Jy’surra in combats over the last few months, I hope that she returns to the pit-sands soon.) I will tell more of this tale as I learn the details (or at least some juicy rumors).

That’s about it for this week, peeps. Seeyas in seven (hopefully with some news from my new tickertape machine).

Hiyas and welcome, dear readers…

This last weekend, Beladi hosted a mass Induction Ceremony, formerly welcoming several of our members into the guild. Callasta, Mosby, Venisha, Blahl, and Ookamikage all stood as guests of honor, and were witnessed by Kelemen, Ixali, Shiindyra, and Aldarrof, with guild leader Envinyatar on hand as a special witness. I think it went quite well, with my using /alias commands to give the induction speech (with only one flub) and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We held it by the big tree overlooking the ocean, on the high hill just north of the Wavecrest Tavern in Korthos. My only regret is that Beladi could not cast her Disco Ball spell in common locales.

On Monday, I heard some news from a friend while sipping some Ghallandra wine at the Open Palm Inn. He started to tell me of a tale concerning a new drow tribe making its way northward from the Xen’Drik interior. He met the leader of a scouting expedition from the Cor’mrael tribe. The Cor’mrael are one of the smaller drow clans, and they were in danger of being absorbed by the Arg’ith (or one of the other large tribes). They were seeking an ancient giant temple for the riches reputedly to be found within, so that they might finance the tribe’s relocation to a new home. But before I could learn more from my source, he fell into an alcohol-induced stupor. (Some people just have no stomach for booze.) I am hoping to learn more about these new drow soon, they sound fascinating.

Gratz to Santus on his soon-to-be-revealed Drow character!

Another tale that I heard was from Kelemen, who ventured in to the Ruins of Threnal along with Santus, Shiindyra, and Chorya. In that place, Kelemen saw his first Beholder (a horrid creature often portrayed in other MMOs as a vicious killer stalk of broccoli) and recovered a deathblock robe (along with a +2 INT hat, which he sorely needed), a very nice robe indeed. Kelemen also hit level 8, so a big gratz to him!

Speaking of Chorya, she recently informed me of her time spent on the Atraxia Isle, home to the Eberron-famous spa (with its lavender-scented waters). Accompanied by Zarae and Blahl, she encountered various vermin on the isle (like a variety of scorpions) including the most repulsive vermin of all, duergar (dark dwarves). They explored the island, stopping an illegal mining operation and helping a young girl on the island. Chorya reached level 10 and finally reached her prestige enhancement goal to become a Warchanter. A big gratz to her also!

Envinyatar informed me that he recently began re-living his old adventures (but they were much tougher than he remembered, though still no match for his level 20 awesomeness) and managed to secure enough favor to reach Champion Status! Way to grind, o Fearless Leader He informs me that he will probably wait until the half-orcs become available as a player race before making his first 32-point build.

Finally, I wanted to wish a very fond farewell to guild officer Julienne and her husband, who announced that they would be leaving DDO in August to pursue other MMORPG gaming experiences (LOTRO goes Free-2-Play then, I believe). I did not personally quest much with Juli (although they did accompany Beladi on my thoroughly lovely first tour of Three Barrel Cove) but I know that she and her husband will be missed by the Brigade. I hope that they have good fortune and fun in whatever online gaming they choose to participate in. /hugs

One final note: The new banner here in the Blog (up there, in the About Us section) is totally fantastic. Love it

That’s about it for now. My tickertape machine showed some life this week, with all the PMs I got. I hope that it continues. Seeyas in seven!