The sound of porous bone drawn across supple flesh presages the appearance of blood-soaked words. There is no quill writing upon the page, nor is there light in this chamber, far removed from the surface of the world. No footfalls in the hallways, no being working over the tome, only a whisper of a woman’s voice endlessly speaking, followed by the sound of bone carving the flesh of the book. So it has been since the coming of the dark ones, since the world grew cold and darkness consumed darkness while the light whimpered and watched its children fall.
The sun rises each morning. The moons come each night. Words ceaselessly appear on the pages of this book. Auberean has survived by way of these constants. But what happens to creation if the words one day…stop?
The Ongoing Saga
Dangers seem to be everywhere in Dereth these days. Zharalim working for the Queen have gone rogue, and statues of the Hopeslayer have appeared in towns, calling to Isparians to shrug off Asheron’s Protection.
In the town of Sawato, near the Blackmire, a terrified mosswart fled some unknown threat. Those who investigated found a massacre, with no hint as to what could have caused such destruction. What new danger lurks just below the surface of the fetid swamp?
Many of this month’s changes have already been described in detail in the Letter to the Players and the Follow-Up. There are three more topics that we’d like to mention in detail.
Portalspace and the Invoker
This month, we’ve updated the Portalspace quest, including the Buadren and the Invoker. The changes are intended to make the quest less confusing and less likely to result in players getting stuck and unable to complete it. The quest and the rewards have also been rebalanced. Here are the most important changes:
[li]Players who have become stuck in the past – generally through loss of the Ember – should now be able to complete the quest successfully.
[li]There is no longer a timer on creating a Buadren.
[li]All of the Buadren parts have been renamed and moved onto new monsters. Since this is a simple name change, if you currently have any Buadren part in your possession, you can still use it to create a Buadren.
[li]None of the items required to create a Buadren are Attuned or Bonded anymore, although the Buadren itself is still Bonded and Attuned.
[li]The Portalspace / Invoker part of the quest is now restricted to 70+.
[li]You no longer have to attempt Portalspace within a month after having created a Buadren. Aun Aulakhe will always remember that you’ve created a Buadren.
[li]Getting an Invoker is now repeatable.
[li]The Invoker has been upgraded. If you have an old Invoker, it will not be automatically changed. However, you can trade it for a new Invoker by giving it to Aun Saritea. If you trade for a new Invoker, you can never get the old Invoker back.
[li]The Portalspace dungeon has seen considerable changes.
Yaraq
The other content revision this month is to the town of Yaraq. Yaraq has been revised in the same way that Shoushi was in January, and Holtburg will be in April. Portal drops and Lifestones have been moved, and the surrounding content has been revised.
In Concept / In Development
We’re working on a better means of keeping you up-to-date on our development activities. We don’t expect to give the full status on each topic in each month’s Letter to the Players, we’d prefer to let you know which topics have been changed or updated. We’ll most likely be adding permanent In Concept and In Development pages to the official Asheron’s Call website.
