Best Of

So I like to take my hunting gold and bet it on roulette for credits. If I win, I buy 1 credit. If I lose, I keep betting until I get a win or lose everything. I was up about 6 or 7 credits before I was down to my last 23k. I -never- bet on single numbers, usually go 50/50 odds for maximum potential.

You place a straight-up bet of 22000 gold sovereigns on 11.

Ardak, the roulette attendant exclaims, "Place your bets!"

Ardak, the roulette attendant sets the roulette wheel spinning and throws in the ball.

You put 379 gold sovereigns in a wyrmskin pack bearing the arms of the Straw Folk clan.

The ball whirrs around the outside track of the roulette wheel.

The ball whirrs around the outside track of the roulette wheel.

You grow still and begin to silently pray for preservation of your soul while you are out of the land. Here's where I assume I'm losing the gold so I'm QQ'ing

The ball drops into the 11 pocket.

Ardak, the roulette attendant exclaims, "No more bets!"

Ardak, the roulette attendant pushes 792000 gold sovereigns to you.

Ardak, the roulette attendant sweeps all losing bets off the table.

You cease your praying.

Round 2.

The ball drops into the 4 pocket.

Ardak, the roulette attendant pushes 200000 gold sovereigns to you.

The ball drops into the 7 pocket.

Ardak, the roulette attendant pushes 400000 gold sovereigns to you.

The ball drops into the 11 pocket.

Ardak, the roulette attendant pushes 1600000 gold sovereigns to you.

11 is my lucky number I guess.

You slip behind a deadly obsidian scorpion and garrote him with your whip.

You have scored an ANNIHILATINGLY POWERFUL CRITICAL hit!

You have slain a deadly obsidian scorpion, retrieving the corpse.

Your soul cries out in ecstasy as it reaches new heights of power. You have advanced to level 128.

You have reached the illustrious level of 7th Level of Penwizian Fortitude.

A large pile of sovereigns spills from the corpse, flying into your hands before they can reach the

ground.

You have found Red Dragon leather (level 3) talisman piece! (Count: 4)

The death of the corpse of a deadly obsidian scorpion fuels the fires that rage within an armoured

charge tank.

As the salty seawater-scented air hits your nose and tongue, you are shown a glimpse of the freedoms offered by a life at sea.

I have fond memories of when Cain was Mhaldorian, and though he was a slave, he'd basically ignore the chain of command and lead warring parties against Shallam. He'd constantly be calling for kai and we'd all just toss some his way so he could either storm in and die horribly or come out having murdered swathes of people. He was like this vicious hell hound leashed by rank and profile, but it would all come off when he was ready to murderhobo stuff. I keep thinking none of this stuff would really fly today, but he was so effective and hilarious he'd get away with so much.

Around then there was this popular paint browser program circulating the internet, it was the flavor of the month on the old forums and I drew this lengthy cartoon about Cain demanding kai from Mhaldor to fight Shallam. I know it specifically mentioned Ellodin, and someone else in Shallam - whoever he was attached at the hip with, I can't recall. Something about Convocation constantly being an issue. Maybe it was Szanthax or something, because he was still trudging around. I miss the old forums a lot.

You see Veiled Apprentice Staria, of Hashan shout, "History."

You shout, "Denied." You snicker softly to yourself.

Ita gives Staria a compassionate hug.

Kierra tells you, "Lol."

You pat Staria in a friendly manner.

You tell Kierra, "Poor lass is standing right next to me too."

Kierra tells you, "Oh my gods.. I can't stop laughing."

As we come to the end of 2021, we've taken our usual time to reflect on the year and wanted to give a brief teaser of what kinds of things you can expect in 2022!

We've had quite a bit going on this year. Let's take a look:

Q1: 2021 began with so many bugs as we released the Pariah class and the associated Ghezavat area. Close on its heels Crixos found a hard fought victory in the Championship Games (much to the dismay of everyone who figured out his more infamous staff power).

Q2: This was a busy one. Between the mass PVE update, relic changes, various collaborations for events with external writers, Pandora deciding to take over Cyrene (or so the propaganda says), city guides and city salaries (fear the unions), Underworld politics, classleads, foray rebalances... there was something for everyone in this three months.

Q3: Ictinus moved on to bigger and more stressful things as the Aetolia producer, making us all very sad. However, this quarter was not all doom and gloom! There was the major Discord integration, a project that probably drove Phaestus to despair several times. We also joined you in tears and cheers for Adryn's tournament featuring some incredible sailing, riddling, and a most puzzling return for the old to Minia's Imp Tower! We also saw Hashan's first ever CTF win, a mass hallucination thanks to a strange fungal monster, and if that wasn't terrifying enough the usual Mayaween celebrations capped off the quarter!

Q4: We started the final stretch of the year with the move away from knighthood as a core aspect of the warrior classes, and the release of the long awaited Paladin update and Unnamable class. Along with the various Logosmas festivities, the release of the excessively festive Merrywick village has also come to fruition, its creator's driven firmly into grinch status by exposure to the process.

And all through the year: mass quest system migration and bugfixes!

So what went wrong this year?

Mostly, we hit the things we wanted to this year. There were a few things we unfortunately couldn't fit in in the latter half - this was mostly a combination of: prioritising other projects (Discord etc), shifting staff around, and deciding to shift the knight split from 2022 to 2021.

So what can you expect next year?

Among other things, you'll find:

- Some exciting enhancements to Knighthood roleplay.

- Interfactional conflict expansions.

- Classlead implementation from the currently open cycle, naturally. That will include runewarden updates.

- Magi updates - these will be separate from classlead implementation, as they'll be getting a more indepth update and release!

- The long overdue and anticipated return of LHG!

- More customisation options.

- Some lore expansions for things you will have to wait and see on.

- The sprint from heaven (or hell if you're us): Achaea's 25th birthday in September, Mayaween in October, the Championship games in November, and then Logosmas to round out the year!

- Some other stuff! Nothing important, we're sure...

We're excited and we hope you are too!

Throughout my time in Achaea, obtaining dragon was never really a goal I set for myself. It didn't seem pertinent to who my character was or what they were pursuing at the time. Now that the main part of that story seems to have played itself out, I'm glad that there are things like this to keep pursuing that give me purpose and excitement in a game.

Channeling the fury of battle, you prepare to unleash a brutally swift stroke against your foe.

Drawing back a runic bastard sword, you unleash a flesh-mincing blow at the fortress steward.

The fortress steward exclaims, "Guards, guards! An enemy of Sirocco is within the fortress!"

You have scored a WORLD-SHATTERING CRITICAL hit!!!

The fortress steward crumples to the floor, his beloved parchment list fluttering out of his

gnarled, elderly hand as death seizes upon him.

You have slain the fortress steward, retrieving the corpse.

You have learned a new Attainment ability: Dragonhood.

Your soul cries out in ecstasy as it reaches new heights of power. You have advanced to level 99.

You have completed the Ashaxei's Brood resolution! Congratulations!

You just received message #1067 from Achaea.

You just received a group of 15 mementoes!

You have reached the illustrious level of Greater Dragon.

Huge thanks to my House, the Merchants, for their support, morale and otherwise. @Sydari thank you for sharing your sips with me, and your diabolical hanging of stockings at Dragonspire. @Ozmatiah thank you for lending me your hunting arties and helping reset areas along the last push. @Merewyn thank you for being you and always a constant positive force propelling me ever forward. @Laetetia thank you for your constant company and discussion as I mindlessly butchered my way through entire generations. @Killian thank you for your sharing of sips, and your ever eager promotion of having a new dragon to drag along on your dangerous adventures.