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Dark Chaos is back in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #3
<delurk>

My toad of conduct has croaked, and authorized me to slam the rule brakes until they're glowing.

*squeeeeeeek*

</delurk>

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Dreams in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #71
No, as I said, I had spent most of the previous day setting up a Drupal system. :P

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
My God can beat up your God! in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #10
Then I believe in one part of your trinity, namely the one who thought "forty-two" was a neat idea. :P

I don't have time to explain my entire pantheon (which is quite sizable), but the greatest of them coined the phrase "Elen sila lumenn omentielvo" while the second greatest is responsible for "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn".

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Dreams in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #69
Marlenny: I certainly know better than to read other people's lov--- private correspondence. :P

(Actually, I can't remember if I read any of it in the dream. If I did, I wouldn't remember anything it said...) Also, I have no idea why I dreamt about this. Some things I just can't explain, like the Riibu as co-worker, bit or the "Nodula". Seriously, who would name a CMS engine that way, even if it was based on nodes? It sounds like noodle sooup...

(Although I might have been dreaming about the CMS because I was working with Drupal so much recently. I have no idea about the name Nodula though.)

[ Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:33: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
A lil dilemma... in Avernum 4
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #5
Avernum 2.

Many people like Avernum 4, apparently, and I'm not saying you shouldn't get both - especially if you played Geneforge and liked it - but Avernum 2 beats its successor hands down in story, immersion, game play and just plain avernum-ness. Ask here on the boards, and you will hear "A2" from just about everyone.

Edit: And that's just here on the A4 board. :P

[ Wednesday, May 17, 2006 10:25: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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EncyclopaediaArchivesMembersRSS [Topic / Forum] • BlogPolarisNaNoWriMo
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
I have a love of woodwind instruments.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Another year gone by... in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #30
Good guess - that's my second favorite. Nougat is the best, though. :)

Edit: Wikipedia advised me that "Nougat" is a very broad term, internationally, so for the sake of clarity I'll add that it's the kind of nougat that includes hazelnuts and cocoa and looks a bit like normal chocolate, but is a lot softer.

[ Wednesday, May 17, 2006 04:17: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Dreams in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #66
Weird... I could understand it if you were in China, but Russia doesn't block Wikipedia, right? I tried the links to make sure, and they work for me...

Edit: And to clarify, the clay thing was just a joke in reference to my current screen name (Henry Anthony Wilcox). Wilcox is an art student in Call of Cthulhu who had some very weird dreams of R'lyeh and made a clay sculpture. I myself don't really have a thing for sculpting. :P

[ Wednesday, May 17, 2006 04:23: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Another year gone by... in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #28
You know, Nikki, I'm getting so used to it it doesn't freak me out anymore these days. I'll just hide my diary in a very good place and change my email passwords every few weeks and pretend you don't know everything I have ever done, said or thought.

However, let's hear it: What is my favorite chocolate?

quote:
Originally written by MagmaDragoon:

This can't bee possible! I'm still 11, with the same post of TM! I could be 10! Argh! :rolleyes:

:)

Post rankings are ordered first by new posts and then by total posts - so even if you posted as much as TM this month, he's still ahead because he has over 6000 posts in total. It's not a perfect way to break ties, but what can you do.

However, I forgot to mention that Dikiyoba drew with me for first place in February.

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Dreams in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #64
Your life won't be the same after reading this. :)

Edit: And yes, it's a bas-relief made of clay.

[ Wednesday, May 17, 2006 01:48: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Dreams in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #62
Doesn't need to be a pencil and paper. Just make a clay bas-relief. Works for me.

(yay for HPL references!)

Edit: I do actually use this thread to note down my dreams though. The post above was made while I was still half-asleep.

[ Wednesday, May 17, 2006 01:20: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Another year gone by... in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #24
That sounds intriguing. I wonder which aspect each of us represents?

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
The Big Club Theory in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #11
What the hell? Did Alex just get competition? :eek:

And good competition too...

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Dreams in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #59
I just dreamt I got on an express train, only to realize that my ticket (although unused) was a year old and also was for the same train in the other direction. Rather than argue that point with the conductor, I prudently got off at the next stop, managing to get all my bags off in time before the train left. I mention that because that's one of the things I often can't do in nightmares.

From that scene, the dream seamlessly went to a conversation I had with someone about "Nodula", which is apparently a powerful web content management software whose only drawback is that it doesn't exist. I checked with Google. From that, it went to a conversation about a new political party that was recently founded in East Germany (somehow although the dream was set post-reunion, people kept referring to it as the GDR) by the remainders of the Stasi (which would be comparable to former KGB agents getting together to form a political party in Russia). Yes, it's weird.

Later, I dreamt that the Israeli secret service (Mossad) had for some reason tagged me as an email spammer and was hunting me down. This might have been caused by reading about Blue Security (Israeli anti-spam company) being shut down due to spam attacks.

And again there are a few details that vanish from my memory as soon as I try to focus about them, so I can't put them in words. I hate that... :rolleyes:

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Another year gone by... in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #16
attn thuryl: he's on to us. what do we do.

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Another year gone by... in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #14
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

It appears I have comprehensively failed to leave. :(
No worries, so have I. Another amusing parallel is that each of our departures were shortly followed by the other one becoming a moderator. :P

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Another year gone by... in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #4
Admittedly, last month he *did* fall to the 31st place after leaving for good. :P

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Another year gone by... in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #0
This is another one of those "bulk updates". I'm allergic to starting new topics, see, and these monthly stats have given me an excuse for posting one once a month, so I always roll as much as I can into them.

I meant to post this on the 17th. If it's still the 16th where you are, just pretend you're living a few longitudes to the east.

--

First: I'm sure you know this, but Douglas Adams died five years and five days ago. If you don't know who Douglas Adams is, a visit to your local book store is in order. Don't make any plans for the next few days afterwards. :)

--

Second: It's my third anniversary! (Sheesh, that sounds like I'm married to this board or something...) Because I joined on May 14, but only posted 6 days, later, I figure that May 17 is as good a day as any. So, feel free to celebrate the beginning of the fourth year of this particular blight on Spiderweb. Celebrate! Celebrate, dammit!

(On a more quiet, embarassed note, it seems that I appear to have doubled my post count between this day last year and now. :o )

--

Third: I've been meaning for a few months to make the front-end for this database a bit nicer, and now it's done. On May 6, the site moved from www.ermarian.net/endeavor to endeavor.ermarian.net. The new site uses a Drupal front-end.

New features (that weren't there on the old site):

A list of distinct titles and how many members have each: /list/titles.An "expanded" list for the above, showing all members with a particular title. This can be used, for example, for looking up who is titled Boe Posse.An improved search function that searches the entire profile at once from a single text field, unlike the old complex search form that has about 12 fields.A list tracking name changes.There are some more things to come that I haven't worked out how to implement yet, and you're very welcome to ask for some other feature I hadn't thought of.
Another great thing about the new site is that it includes a blog where I can post news and updates to the site, so I don't need to advertise every tiny new feature here.
--

Fourth and finally, here goes the stat summary.

I. Joining Rate

Only 94 members have swelled our ranks this month, 48 of them posting. This is the lowest yet this year, and the first time it fell under 100.

Monthly Overview:
April 2005: 151/87
May 2005: 78/43
June 2005: 147/91
July 2005: 153/88
August 2005: 108/62
September 2005: 91/52
October 2005: 81/43
November 2005: 83/41
December 2005: 85/52
January 2006: 136/86
February 2006: 100/59
March 2006: 113/63
April 2006: 126/62
May 2006: 94/48

II. Activity

Apart from the 48 new members who posted, there are 220 older ones who did, adding up to a total of 268 posters since the last update. This is not quite the lowest number this year; it's a draw with February.

Monthly Overview:
April 2005: 360 (273)
May 2005: 262 (219)
June 2005: 325 (232)
July 2005: 352 (264)
August 2005: 293 (231)
September 2005: 256 (204)
October 2005: 229 (186)
November 2005: 234 (193)
December 2005: 239 (187)
January 2006: 333 (247)
February 2006: 268 (209)
March 2006: 324 (263)
April 2006: 318 (256)
May 2006: 268 (220)

III. Postage

6483 sacrifices of spam were brought before the deity of UBB. This comes roughly to 215 sacrifices per day, 24 per member and 0.80 per member per day. It's a slow month on the whole, but individually each member posted more than last month.

Monthly Overview:
April 2005: 7576 | 186 | 21 | 0.47
May 2005: 4723 | 169 | 18 | 0.52
June 2005: 7267 | 251 | 22.4 | 0.77
July 2005: 8691 | 271.6 | 24.7 | 0.77
August 2005: 5917 | 190.9 | 20.1 | 0.65
September 2005: 5412 | 174.6 | 21.1 | 0.68
October 2005: 4477 | 149.3 | 19.5 | 0.65
November 2005: 4389 | 141.6 | 18.8 | 0.61
December 2005: 3958 | 131.9 | 16.6 | 0.55
January 2006: 6580 | 204.3 | 19.8 | 0.61
February 2006: 4555 | 153.24 | 17 | 0.57
March 2006: 7355 | 272.56 | 22.7 | 0.84
April 2006: 6802 | 221.07 | 21.39 | 0.70
May 2006: 6483 | 215.31 | 24.19 | 0.80

IV. Rankings

I'm glad to announce that after three consecutive months of being stuck in the lead (although I drew even with Dikiyoba in February), Thuryl, now back in the top ten, knocked me off the top spot again.

On the same note, this is the ninth month in a row that either Thuryl or I have been top poster - since Rosycat held the place in August last year. The only other month someone else has held the place was in June 05 (Dolphin). So here's my goal for the next month: Place 8. If I find I'm going higher than number 8 on the ranking again, I'll just take some time off. :P

Rank: ID: Name: Posts:
1 869 Thuryl 7196 +231
2 2984 Henry Anthony Wilcox +5953 +221
3 335 Accidental Malice 11512 +203
4 261 Slartreuse 1138 +199
5 6403 radix malorum est cupiditas 604 +194
6 6600 Dikiyoba 1226 +190
7 4045 Kelandon 5608 +183
8 24 Zeviz 1962 +171
9 4153 Ephesos 1728 +167
10 4 Keto-san 6697 +154
All in all, a very unsurprising month.

You can also see the full ranking. The current full ranking is updated with a sophisticated algorithm that ensures that numbers are very accurate while minimizing the traffic downloaded from the forum.

[ Tuesday, May 16, 2006 12:10: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Taskmaster system in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #4
In that case, the weird behavior is an exploit, and the loophole should probably be closed - for example by giving you no experience for fighting yourself (or making it impossible entirely), or for fighting opponents who are far weaker than you. Spiderweb games do that since Avernum (iirc), but there is nothing that prevents "learn-by-doing" games to do so as well.

Of course, closing all those loopholes takes a lot of thought and familiarity with player behavior.

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Taskmaster system in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #2
I agree completely. The current system means that there is basically a "lip" - before which it is hard to survive, and after which gathering experience becomes easier and easier relative to the tactical difficulty. Once you get the Knowledge Brew recipe, you are basically a god in training. The only way to counter this effect in the Blades games is to come up with "handicaps" for the players or to beef up the monsters beyond all reason for high-level parties.

One game that employs a sophisticated weapon system is ADOM (presumably other rogue-likes too), where a weapon can only be trained through use, not by alloting skill points.

Unfortunately, it would be a very significant change from the way the games work now, and I'm not sure if Jeff will change the engine so drastically.

How does A4 handle skills, by the way? I think there might have been a difference to the older Avernums, but I can't remember exactly...

Edit: I type too slowly.

[ Tuesday, May 16, 2006 04:22: Message edited by: Henry Anthony Wilcox ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
What exactly are slith avatars? in The Avernum Trilogy
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #15
It's been some time since A2 for me, but I seem to remember Vahnavoi and Hraithe could be hit with undead-repelling magic. Does that mean that they weren't classed as Vahnatai at all (in favor of Undead)?

Anyway, I currently have this weird idea that in BoA you could set a monster to be affected by Undead spells without giving it the Undead creature type. It's probably just wishful thinking though.

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EncyclopaediaArchivesMembersRSS [Topic / Forum] • BlogPolarisNaNoWriMo
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
I have a love of woodwind instruments.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Post Chat Snippets Completely Out Of Context in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #29
With gas prices as high as they are here, that would be a terrible waste. Probably cheaper to go elsewhere for paid gratification.

And I think it's time to change the topic. :rolleyes:

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Post Chat Snippets Completely Out Of Context in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #26
As I told Alec, I'm spelling "vagen" phonetically. The whole phrase (aside from the "v") came from Alec's twisted imagination, and while I suspect what it is supposed to mean, I'm not using it for that or any purpose. :P

Edit: Although the implications are intriguing. Could you do that? I mean, do people do that? For, uh, pleasure? Some things we are not meant to know...

[ Tuesday, May 16, 2006 02:38: Message edited by: George Gammell Angell ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Native Americans in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #91
I might be flogging a dead horse here, or a point that has already been made, but "survival of the fittest" is a factual statement on a natural process. It is no value judgement in any sense.

Other things being equal, if you do not eat, you die. That is also a completely natural process. As such, it does not involve any judgement: It neither means "you should eat" nor "you should not eat" - that depends completely on whether you think you should die or not.

Bestowing some kind of sanctity on the Darwinian principle, so that any "interference" with it should be avoided, is just as fallacious. As an attitude, it is at best fatalistic and at worst indifferent.

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Alorael have finally get a Custom Title? in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #82
quote:
B(m) = f1(n) + f2(p) + f3(mn) + ...
I would not hasten to the assumption that these factors are entirely independent. Consider the extreme points of this three-dimensional function: A member with p=0 and the other two very high; on the other hand a member with n<0.01 who posts in abundance. According to this equation, if there is enough of one factor, it will balance the lack of the other. Is it not rather true that a new member who posts enormously much is likely even more of a newbie - in a way that would not apply to older members?

Besides, n and mn are even directly co-dependent: Barring anomalous cases [Marlenny, Saunders...], the member number directly reflects the time spent in the community.

:P

Edit: Dumb UBB won't give me round parantheses.

[ Monday, May 15, 2006 22:25: Message edited by: George Gammell Angell ]

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Xylgham udwlnit skretcko!1!! in General
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #151
quote:
Originally written by Dikiyoba:

Originally by Zephyr Tempest:

quote:
Feel free to PM me if you need my help for the scripts, Dikiyoba.
If you have an idea, send it my way and I'll look at it.

-----

Freewebs is being difficult (Dikiyoba can't edit two of Dikiyoba's accounts, but Dikiyoba can edit the third. Go figure.), so Dikiyoba stuck Act 5, Scenes 1 and 2 here for now.

You don't seem to need much webspace for this - if Freewebs keeps being tricky, I could give you a subdomain at Ermarian. Just a thought. :)

(And no, this isn't a bribe to make sure my character stays alive...)

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Encyclopaedia ErmarianaForum ArchivesForum StatisticsRSS [Topic / Forum]
My BlogPolarisI eat novels for breakfast.
Polaris is dead, long live Polaris.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00

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