Reports keep trickling in on the discovery of extremely rare weapons and magical jewelery.
   As was reported a few issues ago by our intreped Dryad reporter Derwood Smallberries, the Lich king and Maggot lord, in an effort to make their forces have a more active role in the distruction of the living races, had begun forcing their troops to carry items the living races may find desirable. It was thought by the WA leaders that this would lead to more of the living races fighting the WA, and thus further their demise.
   
   This practice proved successful to the Lich King, and was taking a step further with the introduction of loot plundered from ancient kingdoms. Amongst the newest of these items are Weapons of such high quality that they even bond to the owner, and once bonded, cannot be traded or even given away.  

   The only know examples so far, consist of a Deamon fist Maul, a Healers Mace, and a few pieces of magical jewelery. As more details become known, I will be posting them here for you to read.

   What long lost kingdom are these relics from? Who was their crafter? Why did they depart Istaria? The answers to these questions we may never know. Only time will tell.  


 
   As the stockpiles of Essence of Blight have continued to be drained, the situation looked quite bleak. Many feared that we would run out at the next major battle with the WA. What, oh, what shall we do?
   
   Gifts can come from unexpected places... like from the WA them selves! A Ranger reported the re-appearance of Blight anchors out at the mithril fields today, and at first this was viewed with dread. But upon closer examination, this was somehow different. This anchor was not acting as the others have.

   What a suprise to discover that after its death, some of the nodes continued to be blighted, and even new nodes are popping up blighted. To be sure, this bears watching, as we never want this to spread to other fields, but it does provide a silver lining to the normal green clouds in any blight area...

   Essence of Blight! Yes, these nodes are providing the needed EOB for us to make the precious Ambrosia! Gleeful confectioners have been seen happily gathering blighted node after node and crowing about it! "I got 3 so far!" one shouts, Another giggles and exclaims "7 from this node alone!"

   So, All you Confectioners, grab your tools, and head out to the Mith fields, We don't know how long this last!


 
   Every spring, harkens new beginnings for all in Istaria. As the days get warmer, and longer, many busy themselves with new projects with renewed vigor. But on of the things we have not seen in a few seasons now, is much of a tourist trade. Yes, we have friends visit us from time to time, but never the steady flow of newly gifted as we are seeing this season!

   From many distant lands, we are seeing everything from sightseeing tours, to folks escaping the great plagues on the other worlds outside of istaria, to those looking to settle down somewhere in our fair land. We even now, see some gifted we thought had left our world returning from adventuring on other worlds, with interesting stories to tell.

   With all this flurry of activity, what can you do to help receive this influx of new friends? Well, for starters, realize many do not know of all the changes that have taken place that have reshaped our lands. They will have to be taught the dangers and delights. Many will be expecting our land to be like the one where they came from, so perhaps a kind hand in getting started is in order? One thing is certain, as the days grow long, and summer arrives, we will have many more among us that need assistance.

   So, dust of your swords and hammers, get your houses, taverns and shops in order. Freely roam the land, and search out these new arrivals. Help them learn the wonders Istaria has to offer, and when they decide to settle down, ( and many will ) be there to assist them with guilds, housing, gear, or training. The battles ahead require many souls to succeed, and the more that settle in our lands the better.

Let's turn Tourists into settlers!


 
   As the Istarian Travel Authority activated the portal to Werewolf Island, adventurers from all over were on hand to satisfy their curiosities. Many made a mad dash into the portal to discover what dangers lay on the other side.

   Upon arrival, there was at first not much to see. A frozen pond, and a road going over the hill. Moving forward as one, the first group spilled over the hill with a gleem of anticipation in their eyes. What met them was, well... not quite what they expected.

   As they crested the hill, 8 werewolves ranging from lvl 70-79 decended upon the group, casting stuns upon all. And these men turned wolf, were smart, as ones stuns would fade another would cast and keep the group stunned. Now even though this group was made of stong warriors and healers, none could raise a weapon nor cast a heal.
   Soon, one from this brave band fell, then another, then a werewolf finally was slain. More fell as more werewolves joined the fray. Soon all the valiant adventurers had fallen under the furry assault.

   Needless to say, the second group over the hill was a bit more cautious!



HELPING OURSELVES BY HELPING OTHERS
By Obadiah Thornwood

   Call me Ob'a da, all my grandchildren do. And I say whats good enough for them is good enough for everyone. I know you don't know me, but you may have seen my work. No matter really, I'm not here to talk about that. I want to address all the other crafters out there, and speak on a subject that is a bit worrysome to us all.
   
   Seems that lately, we have seen a lot of new faces around the great communities of the Empire, and one thing becomes painfully clear to these old eyes, namely the lack of crafted items to help all the newcomers. Now, I do my part, I often goto all the newcomer island to restock the consigners there, but I'm telling you it's just not enough!

   We all need to pitch in together and make sure these poor souls get what they need. BUT, not by just giving them a few bronze tools and thinking it will all be just fine now. No sir! We need to teach these newly gifted what it means to live in this world. It may take a bit of effort on our part, but in the long run, it will pay off.
   
   You may have a different view, and that ok by me. I'm not one to understand all the tangle of politics from tazoon, or what everyone else likes. But I do know from working with all these new ones, that they are ill equipted to make a go of it here. They need training, and WE need to do it.

   Well that my speech. Take it for what is is, and old man's hope for the future. Oh, and if you ever need and new furniture, just stop by my little shop down by... oh, never mind, I ain't allowed to sell any ... YET.



This issue I would like to spotlight one of our larger guilds, to get som insights on what its like for a larger guild and help newer guild leader learn what they can do to run a successful guild.
So I  ran down to Tavu to talk with Rhyssa Serrano, Guild Leader of  The Alliance. They had just purchased the Tavu community, and I was interested to see how things were going.

We found a comfortable spot close to the shoreline, and as we watched schools of fish dart about below us, I asked Rhyssa the questions I hoped would reveal good lessons for all new Guildleaders...


1.   Why did you start your guild?

Our guild was formed by the merging of 3 older guilds from Bounty; Order of Ancients, Fellowship of Ancients and Rising Phoenix.  The 3 guilds had been in an alliance together since several months before the server merge, so we go back a long way. All had all lost members to WoW and EQ2 and none wanted our guilds to just fade away.

2.   What is your guilds Mission statement?

Our statement reads "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is...........darn, it self-destructed before I finished reading it"
Our guild's actual mission is to have fun and to help others have fun.

3.   What draws members to your guild?

Potential members are invited into CGOA, which is our guild chat channel. There's usually an even mix of helpful discussion and friendly teasing, with lots of laughing. People enjoy being in there and and this makes them want to be part of our guild.

4.   How has your guild changed since it was started?

It's grown! We officially started the new guild on January 1st (a new year seemed like a good time for a new beginning) and since then we've more than tripled in size. With the huge growth, we no longer all know each other so well. As GM, I try to at least get to know all new members a little, but lately that hasn't happened. We recently purchased Tavu and things have been very hectic since then, hopefully things will start to calm down now that the main guild buildings are done.

5.   What has your guild been involved with in the community?

Pre-merge, (both server and guild) I think we've had at least one member involved in every event since the game started, whether it's repelling an invasion, killing anchors, building a bridge or freeing a race. More recently though, we completely missed the building of the new bridge - it was finished very quickly while we were all working on Tavu. Our main contribution to the community is in the form of help to new players, whether with information, making items they need or putting things on the Training Island consigners. The last one has gone by the wayside for the last week or two, but as I said, things will get back to normal soon.

6.   Where do you feel your guild is heading now, and how will you get there?

We want to make Tavu a place that's useful to the whole community, not just our guild. Building has started on a jm level workshop for every craft except Tinker (we're waiting for a couple of plots still held by previous owners, one of those will have a tinkers shop on it) as well as a T5 pawnbroker. Eventually we'll have an open consigner as well, at the moment other buildings have priority though. Tavu is one of the 'gateway' portals, that leads to other guild plots and is accessible from Mahagra; we want it to be a useful and pleasant place to pass through.


7.   What are some things you would tell other players just starting a guild today?

With all the hard work that goes into building up guild properties, it's important to know your members well before you extend full trust to them. If you give members plots, you need to be sure you can trust them to respect your wishes. Once a member is given ownership of a plot, they can easily leave your guild and keep the plot. Even items on the plot could be sold or buildings changed. So, please take time to get to know them before entrusting them with guild resources.

8.   Where can someone go, to learn more about your guild?

Our guild has a website, http://The-Alliance.cjb.net It tells you about our guild, as well as having some useful links and information for new players.



The community lost; modern crafting in the world of Istaria
By Gladmerin Trinklsmirt

   Wandering the lands, many features are filled. Buildings built, devices churning and people tending their fields, keeping the withered aegis at bay so the living races can continue to prosper in the glory if Istara.

   But upon even a quick glance, even a greenhorn can tell you that people are tending to their own fields. Gathering things for themselves; building their own buildings for their selfish desires. Locking their shops so that there is some kind of exclusive rite to get in and use the precious machines.

   There was a time when these things did not happen. When people asked others if they needed to use their shops, needed resources they didn’t use, offer tools and time to help bring new and veteran crafters alike a sense of community, kinship, and closeness of fellow crafters to Istaria. But it seems that time is passed.

   Indeed that time has passed. Since the great exodus to Chaos, Order, Unity, and Blight the gifted have coiled into their shells so to speak. Helping a fellow crafter is old news. But helping yourself is common news, and keeping to ones self seems to be part of that article.

   Now the gifted stick to their guilds. Not even really offering them (their guild mates) the community of the past. Everyone seems to have forgotten that a miner is a valuable asset to almost every other crafting class that deals with metal, and leave the poor miner to the field to gather alone.

   But one can see why this has occurred when looking at the way things are now.

   When you go out to buy an item, you see a big gap for those in their midterm of a class. You can find bronze, and some iron. But you don’t see a flood of steel or cobalt items for sale. That is because there is no one who can make them anymore (well some people still exist with the knowledge, but they are hard pressed to find). Many crafters have refined their skill soo much that they forget the older ways. To them using steel and iron is something below them. Everything is made of Mithril to them.

   And because of this gap in experience, everyone in the middle or bottom is looking only to refine their skill without looking at the broader possibilities. No one in their first or second seasons are willing to help each other as a community learn new ways to make items better and faster.

   On a personal note; I spent a large number of days out near the town of  Elmnic. During that time I worked on several classes. And the best way I could learn things in those classes was by doing the most basic of tasks. I made boards.

   Luckily for me there were plenty of trees. But there were also plenty of other people. And for three days straight, I petitioned those around me to let me make them boards. Nothing. No one replied. No “I’m working on my own class making boards”, “I’m just passing through”, or “I’m transmuting”. Just nothing. And on that third day as I was giving up and going back to solo board-making, someone replied. They asked why I was offering to make boards. So I told him; To level gatherer. I can’t get experience by making things except boards. After some more discussion, he finally agreed to let me make him boards. He was building a plot, so the less cutting the better. Shortly after joining and working with me, he realized the increased speed and efficiency provided by having both of us gather, and me making boards and giving them to him.

   And after that day, nothing. No one passed the word on, no one replied to any further offers for free boards… Hopefully someone will spread the word and we will see miners and other refinement classes get work again.



Crystal Power
By Klaus Wulfenbach

Know, O wise and curious Reader, that consumable crystals may yet be gleaned from the battlefields and wastelands of Istaria.  Know, O right-thinking and clear-minded Reader, that some among the Gifted lust after thy hard-won Coin, and do place such prices upon their offerings as would drive all and sundry to beggardom.  Learn now, O Reader, of the gleaning of crystals, and rebuke these miserly Gifted with a firm and upright hand.

The sources of these coveted crystals number four, yet I will speak of two only.  The places I will not speak of are sacred to the Rites of Dragons; making sport there is unseemly.

Learn now of the Ruined Observatory, a place of Blight far to the south of Dalimond, and yet west.  By dragon wing it is a short flight south by south-east from the beaches of Sslanis; those not so free to move will find brisk run in order.  From Bristugo travel south, or from Heart south to the lands claimed by the wood golems, and thence west.  Look, O cunning and prepared Reader, upon the Map of the Land, and see how the land is shown rising in a great spiral.  Upon this mound resets the great Observatory itself, tragic and ruined.  This fallen Seat of Learning is the heart of the Blight miasma, and to it you must go.

The base of the great mound is populated by automatons and their risen creators.  Know, O perceptive Reader, that these foes are too strong to be met with bronze; only those wielding iron or better will win the day, save they band together.  Brother Spiritist, Sister Reaver, pray attend!  These automatons are soulless.  The Magicks of Spirit and the Blade Ethereal harm them in no wise, yet will they vex you right well in return.

These automatons and their risen creators are the foes you seek.  They carry not only the vaunted crystals, but hoard of silver for feeding the might of Dragons.  Mark well, for a few carry also clues to send those fortunate enough to claim them questing for hidden caches scattered throughout the land. These caches are greatly prized by those who seek crystal bounty.  The crystals they contain are most often of great power, far greater than those found on the automatons themselves.  Finding the caches is largely child’s play, save for one, which lies in the swamplands far south of Harro, in which roam many dire creatures.  The other three are unguarded and may be discovered with little effort.

Learn now of Old Rachival, City of Gnomes.  Between Aughendell and Morning Light it lies, and the road to it is often thick with shadow spiders.  Automatons and stronger undead roam the Blighted ruins; bear steel when confronting them if you would live.  In the great ruined dome at the heart of the city may be found Project X, an automaton of great might, and his ghostly attendants.  On either end of this plaza, roadways ascend to the topmost level of the city.  Here may be found the strongest automatons and a number of Deathly Ogres.  From them may be gleaned crystals, items of Learning, and hoard of gold.  Deathly Ogres are mighty; seek them out, O prudent Reader, if you are near to taking up arms of cobalt, or stronger yet.

This teaching is done; but not the learning, and to our own roads we each go.  May your road bring you health, wealth, and victory.




A few words about Cargo Disks
by Guinness McInnis, Master Tailor

The biggest secret to craft level advancement is being careful and efficient, in both planning and execution.  This involves many factors and varies depending on the resource, but nearly always involves using a cargo disk.  A cargo disk is essentially a magical wagon that follows you around, allowing you to carry vast amounts of resources at the expense of speed.

Cargo disks come in 6 flavors standish, standish deluxe, standard, deluxe, tarbash, and compact tarbash.  The first disk available is the standard, which boasts reasonable speed and capacity.  Five levels later, the standish becomes available and has a lower speed, but increased capacity in terms of bulk and item stacks.  The deluxe comes after that and has an even higher capacity in both bulk and item stacks and a still lower speed.  At the end of the tier come the two extremes - the compact tarbash and the tarbash - both capable of holding a single item.  The compact tarbash has the capacity of a standard, but has a very high speed limit.  The tarbash, however, has the speed of the deluxe, but the largest item capacity.  The final disk, the standish deluxe, is only for members of the miner and gatherer schools and is simply a deluxe with the highest top speed.

Three of the above disks, the standish, standard, and compact tarbash are seldom used.  Proximity of resources and their lower capacities are the main reasons for this.  For a regular crafter the choice comes down to a tarbash or a deluxe.  To keep things simple, if you are working a single resource (metal, stone, etc) choose the tarbash, for multiple resource combines (tannin) choose a deluxe.  Only members of the miner and gatherer classes are able to use a standish deluxe and should do so when possible.

With the right disk for the job, all that remains is using it properly.  You basically have two choices here: 1) take it with you and fill both your inventory and disk prior to returning to the processing station or 2) park it at the processing station and recall or run back with loads of raw resources.  In most cases, the second option turns out to be the quicker, especially if you can recall direcly to the processing station.  The only times the first option seems more useful is if you are using either a tarbash or standish deluxe and the resource you are working has dense spawns close to the processing station.  For example, trees are often sparse, so option one would not work that well.  It is tough to really predict which will be best since the presence of roads and your vulnerability when walking a disk back must be taken into account.  If in doubt, time a couple runs using both methods and see which is best.

Construction crafting varies only a small bit from the above, but deserves special mention.  Recent research by the Istarian Crafting Board has concluded and the Gifted were outfitted with better formulas.  Construction items now take up less bulk than the sum of their parts.  This means that the gathering procedure is the same - simply fill your disk.  After filling, create as many construction items and you can hold in your inventory and take them to the construction site.  This tends to be the quickest method in the vast majority of jobs.

Comments or suggestions are welcome.


Arcane majiks used to change dye colors
by Derwood Smallberries, mighty Dryad reporter

   Some dragon are just plain crazy! I was darting through Kion the other day and saw a lizard with the most unusual attire. He was wearing an oddly colored set of leather armors, all pink and blue and yellow. I must say I had to us dryad dazzle just to tone it down! However, it did make me curious where he got such, um... BRIGHT... colors. All he would say was goto the observitory to find out.

   So, I flew out there. Making it to the top of the spiral, what did I find but that crazy dragon Blue-Hasia! He was busy running to and fro, whipping up multicolored potions and smearing them all over ethereal tablets. "It works!" he shouted. "What does ya old coot?" I asked... "Well, you see I was reading one of these old tablets and found a reference to how the ancient dyes were made centuries ago. It seems that with the use of certain majiks, an alchemist long ago was able to change the appearance of dyes from what they normally look like. I have been following the recipes and so far, they all work! The only trouble I have found is that to SEE the changes everyone needs to have a perticular incantation chanted upon them. But, that a small price to pay for such wonderous colors as these!"

   At first he was reluctant to reveal this incantation, but after a bit of fermented ambrosia and some fancy tall tails, he mumbled the page number in the tablet where it was found. So for any that wish to see these new colors... recite this incantation...
 

   As he fell asleep,  I snagged some dyes and flew away.

   Humm... red and gold... very nice!



About Istarian Nodes
by Guinness McInnis, Master Tailor

While slaving away in the fields, with nodes all around me, I often have nothing better to do than ponder.  What are the properties of the nodes all around me?  In my experience, I would guess that the nodes of our great land yield between 800 and 1400 bulk of that particular resource.  This leads to 2 important properties of our nodes: 1)they are not created in a fully developed state, but rather improve over time and 2)nodes hold a fixed amount of bulk, so a node will yield more total units of the lighter resources such as bark, sap, and gems.  Point number one better explained means that freshly created nodes will have fewer total units than one that has been sitting in the field for awhile untouched.

Secondly, while it may not be apparent to some, one of the biggest reasons for moving to the new worlds was simply the existance better quality nodes.  The relms of Chaos, Order, and Unity all have nodes which are so plentiful they were termed 'rich' or 'mother lode' by the Istarian Crafting Board.  Nodes shall be known as 'rich' if they are capable of holding approximately 3 times what a regular nodes does.  Secondly, nodes shall be known as motherlodes if they are capable of holding in excess of 40000 bulk (roughly 10 times what a rich node holds).  Rich nodes seem to spawn randomly and I have yet to determine much about their behaviour.  Mother lodes type nodes are a bit easier to figure out.  There is a maximum of one mother lode per field and it exists all the time; as soon as it has been fully harvested another one will spawn in a random location within that field.  For anyone curious, this is easiest to see in the topaz field outside of Kirasanct, due to its small size.  These more fertile nodes serve to better aid the gifted in the war against the Withered Aegis.

As a final qualifier, the numbers presented are valid for any crafter who is optimum in harvesting that type of resource.  If you are less than optimum, a percentage of the total bulk will be wasted due to your lack of skill.  I also stress that this is simply my experience and I welcome any comments on the subject - be they in agreement or disagreement.

Happy Crafting!



The Secret to Advancement
As told by Guinness McInnis, Master Tailor
( These suggestions apply primarily to tools/weapons/armors )

   Some time ago, I heard a rumour that seemed contradictory to the accepted means of enhancing one's skills.  The generally accepted practice for improving my crafting skills is continually making the hardest item in which I feel my skills are optimal at. This is what is taught to all novice crafters by their trainers, and the officially accepted process adopted by the Istarian Crafting Board of Standards.

What I had heard was that this is actually not true, and that resource usage should also be considered as well. That if a crafter would deconstruct a tool or weapon, and calculate how many bars were used total, that often, the lowest rated tool would gain the greatest experience for the resources used!

Not long after, I headed for the obsidian fields with my stone chisel in hand, ready to test things out.  Much to my surprise, I found my skills increased more for making and deconstrucing a disk full obsidian essense siphons, than for making obsidian essense structurers.  More recently, I tested this theory out as a weaponsmith. Even with metalworking skills of 980, I still found my skills increased more for a diskload of mithril bars spent on mining picks, than fitting hammers.

While this "secret" has been common knowledge to many folks for quite some time, I felt the importance of making it public, since many crafting schools can gain experience by making tools.

So, to make it simple for the newly gifted ones,  tools that require a skill of 200, 400, 600, and 800 will provide the best experience gains per tier, at any skill. There is one exception to this, which you may spot with careful eyes.  As a general rule, a wise crafter will check the  experience they are gaining as they move up from Beginner to Journeyman, and should be well equipped to assist in the effort to defeat the WA by the time they reach Expert status as a crafter.