Conflict is good

[Herst]

The only thing frustrating about being evil are those pesky watchtowers

They make me weep.

[luminier]

They aren't -that- bad.

[Delia]

The rare times Delia has been an enemy of the Crusade left me with a certain healthy respect for the watchtowers. I mean, sure they do not hit that well against agile, experienced characters but then again neither do the dark elves of Amward. But when they do hit it can be nasty and messy, with the crossbows even more so...

[luminier]

well i mean they are fairly easy to avoid... especially with sathos powers. why even go anywhere near them when you don't have to?

[Delia]

There are some bottleneck locations though where they do their job more than properly. Granted the sathos can(more often than not?)avoid even those but hey, they are sathos. Everyone does not enjoy from that luxury.

[Herst]

When everyone knows you are going to avoid the watchtowers, they kind of know the route you are going.....if you understand what I mean.

Those crossbows are nasty. What is even more annoying than that is for a very long time every conflict ended the same. The goodies running to the watchtowers and sitting under them and if the evils didn't want to risk death.....then it was a stalemate. Those bolts will end a fight quickly.

[luminier]

heh, two giant undead, a revenant, and a sathos priest are nasty too. id say maybe more nasty than a crossbow bolt. thats why there is a stalemate.

[Delia]

Luckily, magic can tip the balance either way quite nicely(?). The only problem is that Asador does not have Scribes. It'd be fun to see a mageling or two that could go about freely without morals and conventions of society that any Elvandar/Arborea/Underground institution is forced to follow. Sure Asador has rules but imaginably somewhat different.

As it is currently, playing an evil magic-user is practically impossible. The second you are exposed you are cut off from most if not all resources -> no more scrolls. Even if you could scrounge for some scraps of parchment and droplets of ink, maintaining, let alone improving, your skills would be a trial as it usually requires inordinate amounts of materials...Hopefully this will change in the future.

[Damanta]

As it is currently, playing an evil magic-user is practically impossible. The second you are exposed you are cut off from most if not all resources -> no more scrolls. Even if you could scrounge for some scraps of parchment and droplets of ink, maintaining, let alone improving, your skills would be a trial as it usually requires inordinate amounts of materials...Hopefully this will change in the future.

Evil scribes? Oh my!

I'd love if this were somehow implemented. I mean there are darkelves under the freaking streets, it shouldn't be that hard for an outcast scribe to somehow get materials...

[lanyara]

it shouldn't be that hard for an outcast scribe to somehow get materials

Hmm but it gets to be easier if you aren't banned ...

[Damanta]

Hmm but it gets to be easier if you aren't banned ...

Just because you are outlawed from a city, does not mean you are outlawed from a guild.

[Cuetlachtli]

What Delia just said sums it up pretty completely.

Without vats and herbsqueezers outside of Arborea an outcast would be heavily dependent on another parchmentmaker for massive amounts of parchment/ink. This in my mind would be the _main issue_.

And the source of the parchments would have to be a person who has no problem supplying the outcast mage that would likely be using those materials to attack the town they work in at some point.

I think gathering minerals/herbs/feathers/skins might be less of an issue if done carefully, and if the character didn't mind the occasional risk involved. I think it would be kind of fun, actually, to turn such a mundane thing as hunting for furs or herb picking into an activity that you could very well lose your life in!

Even if the mage wasn't banned from the guild (in this current climate at the scribes guild at least, they most certainly would be) I doubt guild members would be quick to supply the outcast. On top of that they have their own business to look after and wouldn't want to part with precious jade and inordinate amounts of parchment anyway. My character isn't that charitable anyhow.

In short, no herbsqueezer/vats in a neutral (at the very least) location, no outcast mages. Unless I'm completely forgetting something, which I usually do.

[lanyara]

Well, if the only (or main) problem is vats and herbsqueezers ...

Of course the question would be - where (in a neutral area?) could these be?

I can't think of many fitting areas ... perhaps Giat? Or somewhere near Bandama/Cumberly/Jamantys? To use these items one could pay a few coins perhaps.

Off-topic, by the way, but this has to be one of the funniest Avatars ever.

[Cuetlachtli]

I guess I'd have to include the worktable and frame and misc tools for the jobs of making parchments, so basically an all-purpose workshop (if that's even possible) or something I'd think would be the minimum. Just to keep the scribe in ink and parchments and leather and books. (Or portable tools, but that seems kind of bulky, heavy, and not very convenient.)

Giat would be a good suggestion. They have a very nice library, after all. But even a place like Ironhold would do. Perhaps some derelict workshop of years past that still has working equipment, I dunno. I haven't really given it too much thought. In that case the rogue mage would have to be strong, have support (like maybe hiring the merc camp), or sneaky to work. Anyhow, I'm not even sure if Ironhold would have had such facilities anyway, so a bad example kinda.

(You remember Lachtli as a black-striped anthropomorphic male cat.)

[luminier]

Lachtli should get a lot of money buy a caravan similar to the one on the Amward plains and just put everything he needs to be an evil mage there.

[lanyara]

I'm not even sure if Ironhold would have had such facilities anyway, so a bad example kinda.

Probably goblins and the like aren't traditionally the best scribes ...

From my OOC perspective I believe a somewhat "neutral" area might work better than a somewhat more "evil" area (because the "evil" mage would have to associate more readily with an "evil" area, whereas I believe a somewhat more "neutral" area would be better to have, as this would also give more leeway to scribelings not necessarily wanting to associate too much with either the extreme good or extreme evil side), hence why I thought Giat might fit slightly more here - although Ironhold probably works as well.

Anyway, I do however think that the best option would be to give this some more thought, and then write up a mail to admin respectively the "boss" of an area (domain lord) with a concept. Especially something including descriptions. In my opinion one of the biggest "hurdle" usually is the amount of work required (other than balance concerns etc...), but if admin is ok with something then really the only obstacle left is time.

Descriptions, proper concepts etc. ... help with that latter part.

get a lot of money buy a caravan similar to the one on the Amward plains and just put everything he needs to be an evil mage there.

The caravan is nice. Not wanting to hijack the thread into another direction, but I think once the economy concept is improved it might be nice to have regular "caravan" treks moving slowly from area to area, helping to fill shops with supply etc etc ... - and brigands trying to raid these treks!

[Mogwai]

I love the idea of evil mage hideouts...

[Cuetlachtli]

@luminier Sure Lachtli will get right on that...as soon as Luminier goes rogue and becomes his well-paid bodyguard, complete with a harem and all the booze he can drink. We'd have the ultimate party-caravan, the perfect place for conflict.

@lanyara Well I meant facilities left over from when Iron Hold was a mining town, not a goblin wasteland . I'm just not really sure that a mining town would have those facilities. Then again, it was very far removed from most other towns, so maybe it would have things like that for when they couldn't depend on trade for it. I dunno. In any case, unless it was all cast iron (!!! hey maybe it was!) it would be likely completely destroyed.

I'll bet evil magicians will be more catered to when there is a mage class in the game, so to speak. That might also help solve the problem of practically needing a city at your disposal to be a mage. But, of course I have no idea of how that's actually going to work.

[lanyara]

Perhaps not everything was discovered when Ironhold was overrun. Anything that was well hidden, or somewhere deep in mountains.

[luminier]

You got the women, booze and coin, I got the spear, skill and will.

Not to mention Luminier knows -a lot- of hiding places. I like this idea. I've always wanted Luminier to be a mercenary, it would be his last step past the threshold of ruggedness I think.

Eventually once a Mage Tower is made or a Guild is formed, there will be little need for such extreme measures I think.