Jack T. Lamplighter

08/25/2022 12:57 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 105 goes live August 25th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 105 (R105), we offer bug fixes, the deactivation of the Heritage flag, and a small upcoming scene preview.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring...

Play Release 105!

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08/25/2022 06:00 AM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 105 goes live August 25th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 105 (R105), we offer bug fixes, the deactivation of the Heritage flag, and a small upcoming scene preview.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Vikland Preview

Sannio’s upcoming scene in progress, Vikland, is apparently a small village of barbarians. I’ve heard they’re raiders who ransack other communities up and down the west coast of Slangemagge, but there’s nothing worrisome here in the village or in the hills further inland.

Vikland in Progress

Heritage Flag Deactivation

Heritage Icon Yes, the rumors are true! Due to overwhelming community request, we are disabling the Heritage flag on all items purchased in the Crown Store. This applies to items bought in the past and items currently listed in the store. This change is planned to be put in place with a patch on Friday September 2nd.

What is Heritage? Items currently marked with the Heritage flag are bound to the account that purchased the item. In the store this is indicated by the lion icon and the item names showing green, indicating that they cannot be traded (unless packaged for trade with Crowns.)

We are overriding the effects of Heritage items so they may once again be tradeable. Feel free to gift all your friends with fancy outhouses! RMT (Real Money Transactions) are still not supported by Shroud of the Avatar, in so far as Support will not assist in any issue arising from a player to player RMT trade, and RMT advertisements should not be made on any of the official SotA social channels (Discord, Forums, in-game chat, etc.) We recommend using one of the existing (or maybe even a new) player-run website/forum for RMT trades.

Release 105 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 105 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R105 is a polish month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R106 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 105!

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

Allow items to be placed on the Small Nightstand. SOTA-70695
Fixed a typo in Fragile Trailsend Tunnel Key description. SOTA-70687
Fixed the icons for two Puzzle Cloaks. SOTA-70685
Fixed an issue where the Belt of Control, Legendary had less Tame Health Level Modifier than the Rare version. A fix for the Tame Critical Hit Damage Multiplier is coming soon. SOTA-70688

User Interface, Store Information, & Lua Changes:

Adjusted the lot expiration text to reflect that the decorated lot can be retrieved from the Property Manager instead of the bank.
Made Lua function button textures optional.
Updated Avatars Radio stream location. SOTA-70694

World and Quest Changes:

Fixed an issue with dynamic resource nodes not rewarding XP scaled for the scene tier. Fixed low-tier nodes’ durability costs for dynamic nodes. SOTA-70560
Fixed a null exception in the lost mail quest when triggering the keyword “lost mail” in the chatbox. SOTA-70486
Brittany Fields: Moved a tree which was blocking the road with its limbs. SOTA-70701
Castle Atos: Added a guild registrar inside the throne room entrance. SOTA-70702
Etceter: Updated the quest logic so that the “Get Information from Lady Ransom” compass marker goes away at the proper time. SOTA-70699
Grusk: Fixed some walls that had z-fighting. SOTA-70700
West Perennial Trail: Removed a floating spider web. SOTA-70696

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Mith Trysull: Fixed Governor name.
Rajazel: Added a custom loading screen and message. SOTA-70706
Traveller’s Rest: Upgraded to Metropolis. SOTA-70698

Latest News and Q&A Livestream

The post-release Community Livestream is Friday, August 26th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “Fall is on its way” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream, and we’ll even be periodically posting answers to some unanswered questions in the forums. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live frequently on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

Sales and Bonus Events

To commemorate Labor Day, until end-of-day September 5th:

Double XP will be enabled.
Crown store sale category items will be 30% off.
Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off.
Player Owned Town upgrades for Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off. These upgrades may only be initiated by an email to Support.

Release 105 Subscriber Login Rewards

These rugs are made for walkin’. The Rewards Program login items for Release 105 are a Rectangle Rug (Yellow and Gold), a Small Rectangle Rug (Ocher and Green), and a Slim Dark Wood Dresser to place upon one of them. …out of the path of traffic.

Slim Dark Wood Dresser

Rectangle Rug (Yellow and Gold)

Small Rectangle Rug (Ocher and Green)

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 105 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

September Login Reward

Each account that logs in during the month of September will receive a one-time gift of a Rectangle Rug (Orange and Tan).

Rectangle Rug (Orange and Tan)

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for a patch soon after release:

Reference Book Group 3-Pack
Painting (Landscape)

…for September 2nd:

Rectangle Rug (Orange and Tan)

…and for September 16th:

Slim Dark Wood Dresser
Rectangle Rug (Yellow and Gold)
Small Rectangle Rug (Ocher and Green)

The Summer Seasonal store items are available until Sunday September 25th:

Firedancer Outfit
Fire Dance Emote
Fire Dance Cross Emote
Flame Scimitar
Flame Shield
Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
Flaming Bagpipes
Hula Emote
Island Spear
Island Flower Crown
Island Dress

New Bug Brigade’s 2nd Anniversary Party!

Please join us for a party celebrating the 2nd anniversary of the new Bug Brigade, hosted by the Bug Moderators Ravalox, Alley Oop, Justyn, Echondas, and our newest Bug Moderator (to be announced during the party)! The party will start Saturday the 10th at 7PM NBT in Ardoris on the Bug Brigade’s Houseboat indicated in the image on the right. Justyn will be spinning tunes on WRFB while the party-goers dance, play party games, and more! You never know what might happen!

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Blue Butterfly Pet
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2022 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 105 – August 25 (Polish)
Release 106 – September 29 (Content)
Release 107 – October 27 (Polish)
Release 108 – November 17 (Polish)
Release 109 – December 15 (Polish)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Recurring Events:

Monthly Release Fishing Contests: This will be a rotating, multi-location contest sponsored and organised by Rajazel, The Town Museum and its Governor Diablotine.
Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Lightbringer Isle hosts a monthly auction held the Sunday after release at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Core Books Bundle! If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this unique gaming system and setting, now’s your chance! This bundle includes two beautifully illustrated, full-color, hardcover books: the original Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts book! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! While not yet live, they plan to release later this year and you can join the closed beta now by pre-ordering from embersadrift.com. Check out their newly released video here:

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

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08/18/2022 04:36 AM

Read by Alleine Dragonfyre

Louisiana Myths & Folklore

Volume 5 – “City of Darkness”

“So tell me about the vampires,” I said, in a casual manner, having bumped into Jacque once again, this time in the Ordinis Mortis marketplace.

The man truly was everywhere, these days.

“Vampires?” he said. “Fiction, pure fiction.” He made a dismissive gesture and pretended to be immersed in examining the merchandise on the stall in front of him.

“You’ve told me of the loup-garou, of the marsh fires, of the voodoo witch. You’ve told me of ghosts and hauntings and the eerie above-ground cemeteries where any of the above may be lurking, it seems. But vampires are fiction?”

“There are legends of course,” he began, leaning casually against a nearby stone facade. “There were murders. Bodies found drained of blood. That sort of thing. “

He paused then, gauging my reaction. I kept my expression neutral. He continued:

“John and Wayne Carter, brothers you understand. Worked normal labor jobs, lived in the French Quarter. Seemed nice enough folks, at least, until the police found those bodies at their place, drained of blood. Found over a dozen of them.”

“What happened to these brothers?” I asked, feeling a bit nauseous.

“They were executed. Took 8 men to subdue them, they were so strong. Locals said they drank the blood of their victims…that’s how the nonsense started.”

Jacque’s stiff posture and reticence in elaborating on this story made it clear to me that he did not think this was nonsense. I gave no response, and waited for him to continue. Eventually, he did:

“Folks say their bodies went missing from their tombs. And that one of the victims that survived, went on to also kill people and drain their blood. Then you have the usual folk who claim to still see the brothers roaming the French Quarter at night, looking for victims.”

I recalled our first meeting in Aerie, hearing his footsteps behind me on the dark, empty streets. I felt a chill.

Jacque straightened himself and began walking past the market stalls. Vendors were packing their wares away and hurrying indoors.

He looked at me carefully, as if making up his mind about something. Then he walked over to the devotional fountain.

Removing a glove from his hand, he let his fingertips gently brush the surface of the waters.

Steam billowed from the fountain, accompanied by a resounding hiss. He touched the side of my face then, with that same ungloved hand.

I felt the beads of the fountain’s water trace burning paths down my neck.

I reached out to push him away, laying my palm flat against his chest. No heartbeat….?

I took a step back.

“Oh come my dear, you were never in any danger. I know you are an Avatar.” And then he was off again, walking across the grass over to the river.

“I call this the Ordinissippi. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

And there, further up the docks, I saw the drydocked ship, being loaded with assorted barrels and crates. Colored banners flew, glowing with their own luminescence under the starless sky.

“What is it that you want from me? Why have you been following me?” I asked, as I followed him toward the ship.

“Why, to tell the story, of course!” he said, laughing, as he climbed up onto the docks.

He hopped down off the platform and gestured over at a brightly lit cafe down the street, still open and bustling at this time of night.

“We all have much to learn of this world, but we must never forget where it is we came from. Here is where we have gathered, to rebuild our city as it once was…or as close as we can, in this place.”

He gestured at the avenue in front of us. Look there, Madame’s House of Voodoo…and there..we’re calling that the New Absinthe.”

“And there, the musical legends park…statues still with the sculptor. “It is apparently extraordinarily difficult to get quality granite on this world!”

I looked up and down the avenue, recognition dawning as Jacque led me from place to place.

We stopped for beignets at Cafe du Monde Noveaux. We sampled seafood at Pier 425. We danced under glowing lights at New Bourbon Street Balcony.

Slowly, slowly the sun started to rise.

As it did, the entire street seemed to …shimmer in the growing light. Fading out, until I was standing there like a fool in an empty field.

Had it all been a dream?

I looked down, and there in my hand was a handful of brightly colored metal coins, stamped with various faces and symbols.

I stuffed them in my pocket, and started walking back toward town.

It seemed Ordinis Mortis now had its own ghosts.

——————————The End

Echoes From the Caverns

[-][/c]

The post Louisiana Myths & Folklore, Volume 5 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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08/18/2022 04:22 AM

Read by Alleine Dragonfyre

Louisiana Myths & Folklore

Volume 4 – “The Voodoo Queen”

It was early evening and I had just come through the pass, and I could see the lights of Brittany ahead in the distance.

Rather than head straight for the city, it was often my habit to pass through Midmaer to gather reagents that only bloomed in the moonlight.

And of course, that’s where I ran into him again. Jacque, in his fine coat, stood at the forest’s edge almost as if expecting me.

He didn’t seem to have any particular agenda, and trailed alongside me as I walked the path through North Midmaer way, gathering nightshade and mandrake root as I went. He made small talk mostly, but seemed on edge as we passed under the shadows of the trees.

I left the path then, heading into a grove of trees I knew had bountiful roots and herbs. The grove was well lit by a shimmering will-o-wisp.

I headed toward it, watching my step to not trip over brambles and branches.

Suddenly Jacque’s hands grabbed my shoulders, halting my forward movement.

Fifolet!” he whispered harshly, then gestured I should turn around. I looked around, trying to figure out what he was so worried about.

“Its just a will-o-wisp,” I said, gesturing at the hovering purple floating creature. There are many of them in Novia.”

He looked at it dubiously.

“It is quite harmless,” I added.

Jacque did not look convinced. He continued to look at the will-o-wisp, then at me, then back at the wisp, frowning.

I laughed, and gathered my focus, calling upon the powers of moon magic to summon a will-o-wisp right there in front of us. It appeared with a whooshing sound, then sat placidly, glowing softly.

“Feu Follet” he said, more slowly. It still sounded like ‘feefolay’ to me. “Devil spirits. They lure you out into the woods, often to your death!”

Well, this one’s not leading anyone anywhere, look…” I said, running in a circle and the wisp followed me obediently.

Jacque still did not look convinced. “You have this as a pet? In my homeland, these fairy spirits lure people to their doom – you’ll follow it right into a lake and drown!”

I decided that this would not be a good time to demonstrate that I had taught my pet wisp to dance. I dismissed it with a wave of my hand. Jacque relaxed noticeably.

In the sudden darkness, the lights of a nearby house became visible in the distance. Without a word, Jacque started toward it. We passed under the eerie branches of trees; trees that seemed to watch us as we moved. It was an unsettling feeling. I had never strayed this far from the path, before.

Jacque walked to the side of the house, which itself seemed to be carved of a giant tree, and peered in one of the windows. He then mumbled to himself at some length in that same creole patois he’d spoken the night we first met, then walked back to where I stood, hidden in the forest.

“It is her,” he said simply, and started back toward the road. “We should leave this place.”

“You mean the supposed “witch” of Midmaer?” I asked. “She’s known to live in these parts. She does herbal remedies and such for folk. Similar to my line of work, really.”

He shot me a glare.

“I’d recognize her anywhere. Your Midmaer witch is Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen. I knew the rumors of her death were false. Look, there in the window! She lives still!”

I raised an eyebrow. And then Jacque told me her story:

Marie Laveau, The Voodoo Queen did indeed provide herbal remedies, and was a well known and influential member of society in her day, which was all the more impressive for being a woman of colour during that time in South Louisiana. But it was also said that she communed with the dead, and crafted spells on behalf of clients for good or ill, and engaged in rites with demons.

“She knew things, that woman. She’d give advice to all the prominent people in town, and somehow she always knew the outcomes.” From his demeanour, Jacque spoke of her as if she were someone he regularly passed on the street. He talked then of her funeral, which was attended by people from all social circles.

While it was said that she died peacefully of old age in her home, many people reported seeing her after her alleged death. While her daughters took over her shop, mystery and legend always surrounded what became of her. Whether her magic was real, or whether she was merely a gifted reader of people, her legacy has echoed through the years and become a part of New Orleans history.

Even a century later, people still mark an X on her grave (where some claim she is not actually buried) and leave offerings in exchange for magical favors.

“And at last now, the mystery is solved.” He said, as if it were blindingly obvious.

“She’s come here, just as you have. Just as I have.”

“But what need have we of Voodoo, here in Novia? The land itself teems with magic.” To emphasize my point, I summoned the will-o-wisp again.

Jacque raised his arms and exclaimed something I did not understand, but needed no translation, and headed down the road out of the forest.

He called out behind him, “If you see one of those fifolets, one that doesn’t live in your pocket, don’t follow it!”

And he was gone. The forest seemed to ..unclench a little. There was a light breeze, like the trees let out a collective sigh.

I looked back at the witch’s house, and saw a face at a window staring back at me.

She nodded her head once, slowly. Then drew the curtains.

Shimizu 560

Echoes From the Caverns

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08/18/2022 04:04 AM

Read by Alleine Dragonfyre

Louisiana Myths and Folklore

Volume 3 – “ The Haunted Mansion”

So I was making a delivery to a regular customer of mine up north in Harvest. As usual, the place was busy with many people going about their business, even though it was late evening and the sun had already set.

I heard a commotion down in the square, and saw a man in a familiar looking, fashionable yet out of style, overcoat being led by the hand by a group of young children who are chattering and gesturing wildly.

Of course, it was Jaque, who seemed to be turning up everywhere these days. Or at least everywhere that I was. That thought nagged me a bit, but I let it lie for the time being, and went to see what all the fuss was about.

Jaque smiled as I approached and said “These children have been telling me that the house up on the hill here is haunted. What do you know of this?”

I briefly explained that yes, strange things had been known to occur in that house after midnight, but that many adventurers had come through and investigated the matter. It wasn’t something I was particularly worried about, just local legends.

Jaque seemed to be considering something, and then finally he crouched down on one knee right there on the street and said “Children, do you want to hear of a haunted house from my homeland?”

I expect that some of the children probably did want to hear this tale, but the fresh lemon buns that Jaque was handing out to his would-be audience were likely the more deciding factor.

I loitered nearby, out of curiosity more than anything to hear the storyteller spin his tale.

Jaque sat down on a bench, and the children clustered around eagerly. He glanced up at the house on the hill, and then back at his audience, and began.

There was a house very similar to that one where I am from. Yes, a beautiful mansion and the home of Doctor LaLaurie and his wife Delphine….

Jaque went on a several minutes long tangent about the fabulous parties thrown at the LaLaurie house of which he had of course attended many though the nuances of wine and dancing, and the general behaviour of New Orleans socialites was probably lost on his current audience, who nibbled on their lemon buns and started to look bored.

“So their mansion was haunted?” I asked, trying to steer him back on track.

He grinned his famous grin at me, and carried on. “This house was, you understand, just a few houses down from my own home on Royal Street, and I can personally bear witness to some of the …activities… that went on under that roof.

By this point, some of the other residents of Harvest had gathered round to hear the tale. As Jaque began to describe the events that took place, it became evident both to myself and the surrounding parents, that such a tale was certainly not fit for children’s ears.

Suffice it to say that the mistress of the house, Madame Delphine La Laurie, was exceedingly cruel to the people in her employ, treating them as property and punishing them horribly for the smallest slight.

I could see that Jaque was trying to explain the origin of the haunting without going into what I later learned was gruesome detail. “She did bad things, very bad.” was about the best he could come up with. Parents were trying to usher their children away from the crazy man in the antique clothes – It was far past their bedtime.

Jacque did not seem perturbed by the loss of his audience. He continued talking, half to himself, half to me, while brushing the lemon bun crumbs off of his jacket.

“Anyway!” he said after a while, snapping back to the present. “The people, they found out what was going on. They gathered around in the streets demanding justice. And there was a terrible fire……”

So the story went, one of the cooks, tired of the cruelty of the mistress, set fire to the kitchen, which spread to much of the house. Madam Delphine was never seen again after that day, having vanished from the city.

For years later, he went on to say, later owners of the house reported hearing screams of agony, or the sounds of sobbing, coming from seemingly within the walls. For many years the house stood empty and fell into a state of decay. For the next hundred years, he said, everyone who owned the house ended up in shame. Scandals, even murders, and rumors of lost riches surrounded the house, though very few dared to go and search for them.

He said 150 years after Madame’s disappearance people discovered the skeletal remains of her servants, buried beneath the floorboards.

He finished his monologue and looked up at the House on the Hill, then looked at me.

I shrugged.

Then a thought occurred to me.

´Jacque,” I asked, meeting his gaze. “How is it that you say you knew Dr LaLaurie and his wife, and attended their parties, and know of events that happened a hundred years after their deaths?”

To his credit, he didn’t even look surprised by the question.

“Ah, cherie, pretty AND smart” he said. “You’ll figure it out.” He did a flourishing bow and strolled off toward the house on the hill.

I heard the clock tower in town chime midnight as I turned and headed on the road leading out of the city.

When I reached the mountain pass, I turned and looked back. It may have just been a trick of the light, but I could have sworn that the mansion was ablaze.

I wrapped my cloak around my shoulders more tightly and travelled the rest of the way home.

Shimizu

560 PC

Echoes From the Caverns

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08/18/2022 02:47 AM

Read by Alleine Dragonfyre

Louisiana Myths and Folklore

Volume 2 – “Beware the Loup – Garou”

It was some days after my chance meeting with Jaque at the Tavern in Aerie, when I was going about my usual business. I am an alchemist by trade, and often visit local swamps for rare herbs and mushrooms.

I’m more than capable of dealing with most of the swamp’s hazards, but it was unusual for me to encounter other people when I made my collection trips.

Even more unusual for me to be taken by surprise.

This is why I jumped a little, startled, when I heard a voice behind me suddenly utter in a raspy voice “Don’t move.”

Instinctively, my hand began to tangle with the channelling of Earth magic, and I turned to face the threat. Who was it but none other than Jaque, the strange man from New Orleans.

He backed away a step, and smiled what I would come to recognise as his famous disarming smile, and said “Mademoiselle Shimizu. I did not mean to startle you.”

I let the earth magics recede.

Satisfied I was no longer on the offensive, Jacque took my hand and led me back through the thick reeds aways, ducking behind one of the old Cypress trees. He pressed one finger to his lips. “Sssh” and with the other hand pointed out into the fog and gloom.

“What is it?” I whispered, seeing nothing but the usual foetid swamp waters, and hearing nothing but the usual cacophony of insects, buzzing from every direction.

I opened my mouth to ask him again, but he quieted me with a gesture. “Listen,” he whispered.

I listened to the sound of the water’s surface disturbed by fish. I listened to the sounds of creatures rustling through the underbrush.

Nothing out of the ordinary for South Fetid swamp.

After an indeterminate amount of time listening to nothing out of the ordinary, Jacque sat down on a fallen log and said “Well, that’s a relief.”

He sat there for a moment, straightening the cuffs of his shirt and carefully removing bits of leaves from his hair.

I had spent enough time with the man by this point to realise that an explanation would be forthcoming, but that he had to tell these things in his own way. Storytelling being, according to him, one of his most passionate entertainments, as I had learned during our meeting in Aerie.

Finally, satisfied that he had removed as much of the swamp muck as was possible while still sitting in the middle of the swamp, he turned and asked me, “Have you ever heard of the Loup-Garou?”

I, of course, shook my head that I had not. And so he told me the story.

In his homeland, Jacque explained, there were stories of a strange creature that inhabited the swamplands. the Loup-Garou, or what the locals sometimes called the Rougarou, was said to inhabit the swamps around New Orleans and Acadania.

He looked at me with his still empty eyes and said “It’s a werewolf of course. That’s what the word means.”

I smiled. Of course it was a werewolf. It seemed silly to believe in such things, and yet we did cross a rift into Novia, and I had surely with my own eyes seen and even fought stranger things than werewolves.

This loup-garou, Jaque explained, carried with it a curse – If it were to bite you, then you must tell no-one of it for 101 days, lest you also turn into a loup-garou.

“At least that is what the old wives used to say. In this world – who knows?”

We sat in silence for a time, listening to the chirp of crickets. “So,” I asked him, “It’s just a large wolf?”

“The head of a wolf, the body of a man, so the stories say. Or perhaps It was the other way around. I never saw it.”

“Hmm.” I said, not sure what else to say.

We sat a while longer, but it was getting late. Not that you could see sun or stars in fog this thick. I picked up my bag of herbs and stood up, preparing to bid Jaque good evening.

A soul-chilling howl suddenly echoed across the swamp.

Jaque jumped to his feet, and for a moment it seemed his eyes glowed red.

“Has the beast also come to Novia?” he exclaimed, and took up a fighting stance, though I noted, he drew no weapon. I was going to ask him what he planned to fight it with, when another sound pierced the darkness.

And this sounded like a woman’s scream.

In an instant, Jaque was gone into the mists. He was swift, but I had travelled these swamps many times, and I caught up with him in a clearing, alongside a terrified young woman.

He had his hand clasped tightly over her mouth, and kept saying “You mustn’t speak of it, you mustn’t breath a word of it!”

Without so much as another glance in my direction, he wrapped his cloak around the woman’s shoulders and began walking her back in the direction of town.

It had started raining again. I stood some time there in the darkness, listening, before turning to follow in the direction Jaque and the woman had gone.

And for some reason, the next night I found myself staying in range of the city street lights when I went out to forage.

By Shimizu in the year 560 PC.

Echoes From the Caverns

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08/18/2022 02:28 AM

Read by Alleine Dragonfyre

Louisiana Myths and Folklore

Volume 1 – “Meeting with a stranger”

People have come to Novia from so many places it was inevitable that some, at least, would hail from Louisiana. And while they have seen some strange things indeed in their time in this world, perhaps things are not so strange considering the tales they tell of their homeland.

One such traveller, I met one late evening on the streets of Aerie. He was going nowhere in particular, it seemed. It almost felt like he was waiting for me or at least for someone. He watched me walk aways, following at a respectful but unsettling distance.

A light drizzle began to fall, and I quickened my pace. My pursuer matched my strides. Finally, I stopped, turned, and stood beneath a guttering streetlight to face him. The night breeze pushed aside my cloak, revealing me to be harmed.

After sizing me up for a few moments, he laughed and mumbled something I couldn’t understand in a French patois, then gestured at the tavern across the street and offered to buy me a drink.

Since prior to running into the stranger the tavern had been my destination, I saw no harm in this – besides, the rain was picking up, and it would be best to go indoors until it relented.

As we walked through the doorway, his eyes took in the entire room, meeting the gaze of the few assembled therein – a tired barmaid, and a few late revellers in the corner. He seemed to relax, and it wasn’t until I saw this change in his demeanour that I realised how tense he had been before.

Then, as if we not just met by chance in the rainy street, he patted me on the shoulder and called the barmaid over to bring me a drink. Now that the light was better, I could see that he was quite handsome. He was young – not much older than I, certainly – but his eyes seemed ageless and ancient. I did not stare at them long.

It was there as I sipped some wine from some local vineyard, that he said quietly, “Pleased to meet you. My name is Jacque.”

I introduced myself in turn, and it seemed once this verbal barrier had been breached, there was no stopping the flow of words from him. He began with stories of Europe from an earlier time, and stories of Africa from the age of explorers. The level of detail in his recountings was remarkable.

As he spoke, I reflected that he seemed someone more accustomed to be around people. His clothes, cut from an older style, were ornate and clearly belonged to a man of wealth.

Finally, I asked of all the exotic places he had described which of these was his home before coming to this world?

“Ah,” he said, leaning closer to me, his voice dropping to a whisper.

His expression suddenly looks sad, his eyes misty.

He then proceeded to tell me about his home on Royal Street in New Orleans. The dinners, the parties, the food, the women!

He talked and talked and talked until the first glimmers of dawn began to flicker in the windowsill.

Then, quite suddenly, he was on his feet, donning his hat and cloak and bidding me farewell. In a quite antiquated gesture, he bowed and kissed the top of my hand and slipped a shiny bauble in my hand. He said it had been quite a while since there had been someone he could talk to so openly. Then, with a flourish, he was gone, disappeared into the pouring rain.

It wasn’t until after he left that I realised, he had never touched his own drink.

It was some days later that I asked a local jeweller familiar with otherworldly artefacts about the shiny bauble. He wasn’t able to discern much, says it looks by style to have been from the 18th or 19th century France, but he couldn’t tell for sure.

He was able to translate the old text for me; it read simply. “House of Saint Germaine”. Neither of us really understood the significance of this. What a strange fellow he had been! And the stories! Some too outrageous to believe!

I have written down all that I remember here for your delight, so that we may celebrate our journey to Novia while paying homage to our past, our roots, and the legends that have shaped us. By Shimizu in the year 560.

Echoes From the Caverns

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08/16/2022 03:23 AM

Read by Addy

Chapter 8. Capes and Secrets.

Just across a river or two from the city, Zyrina stopped along the side of the bridge and looked at the sign directing us to a midsize town just ahead. The sign said Ordanis Mortis.

“Here it is,” Zyrina trailed off. “Restaurant coming up.”

“Real food.” Lucy nearly drooled.

Without hesitation I spoke up, “Absolutely, we’ve travelled hard and hungry. Let’s go find out what we can. Same tactic as last time: look for people who know more than they should know…and get them drunk if you have to.”

“Is it far?” Lucy asked, her stomach rumbling along with her question.

“Nope. And the town crier is usually near the docks just as we enter town, and he will give us better directions than I can remember off the top of my head. I just remember the menu…” I noticed Zyrina wiped her mouth which was salivating in anticipation.

“Come on,” I called out as I headed for the community of Ordanis Mortis. I had more than food on my mind.

“List Rostov hires the best chefs in the land, as far as I’m concerned,” Zyrina proclaimed boldly as she crossed the bridge. “She has never failed to fill my stomach with a good meal and sometimes a good song too. List dabbles in music too, you know?”

I nodded my head, “Yes, I’ve played music with Ms. Rostov at various pubs around Novia. And I’ve eaten with you at this restaurant years ago.” Zyrina looked thoughtful for a minute before remembering, then nodded, and Lucy just looked confused and hungry.

Here Zyrina stopped gossiping and hailed the town crier, “Good sir, where might I find Los Gardeñias Restaurant owned by List Rostov?”

The crier pointed to the path across the field away from the river and through the beautiful cherry tree garden nearby. We did find it, mostly by following our noses.

We seated ourselves in the outdoor area behind the main building, on a long bench and a long table covered with a checkered pattern. Then staff arrived at our table with heaping platters of succulent meats and dishes from around the land as well as a sweet wine that all of us drank far too much of. The Phoénix Picante was AMAZING. Lucy had two helpings.

Zyrina had wandered off part way through the meal and, as Lucy and I were just beginning to wonder where she had gone, she returned. She held a few scraps of torn paper in her hand and placed them in a clear spot on the table.

“I saw someone I knew,” she said simply. “The mage has been here in Ordanis Mortis, too.”

That drew the immediate attention of Lucy too. We all leaned in further.

“What? Where?”

“When?”

“Juanita Joanna Maria Pajero, a waitress here at Los Gardeñias, is an old friend of mine. I asked her if she had seen Aslinne come through town. She hasn’t.” Zyrina saw me open my mouth to ask.

“We were talking about magic in Novia and she got a strange look on her face. I asked what she was thinking about. She hesitated a little before mentioning a weird fellow, a tattooed mage in black with a little book under his arm and a big blue bag that had been here for a meal with an equally striking older man also dressed in black,” she told us.

Zyrina went on, “that description of the mage caught my attention right away. Juanita knew nothing else, but she showed me the cloak that the mage left behind after an argument between him and the other fellow.” Here she held up her hand to deflect my question. “The fight was about a dragon egg. It was short and vicious. She didn’t hear anything more specific. He didn’t even storm out, didn’t even finish his meal, he uttered a short incantation and rudely disappeared right in front of everyone.” She added, “Obviously used a magic travel scroll.”

I nodded agreement, “Go on.”

Zyrina continued by answering Lucy’s question, “They were here recently enough that Los Gardeñias has not yet discarded his forgotten cloak.”

Lucy looked ready to speak but Rina continued, “Yes, I went through the pockets,” She added seeing our hope, “I only found three things. These were in one of the pockets. Another one that looks like it was torn out of something.”

The first note was wrinkled from being in the bottom of a pocket and shredded to bits, but still readable. The series of numbers were different from the first ones we had discovered, but no less confusing. And the paper didn’t seem to match up to the edges of the other piece of parchment anywhere. The papers seemed to be related though. Four numbers in a row.

1-1-2-3

O-2

“What in the world can this be? A really long lock combination?” Lucy stared at the numbers as if they were going to speak to her. They didn’t. She smoothed the paper and tucked it in the satchel with the other numbers we had encountered. None of theses made any sense to any of us as of yet.

The second note made more sense. We were on our way to Darkshire Hills and this might have been the mage that was there with Aslinne and Kitty, after all. I nodded my head and pursed my lips to read it aloud.

At the headwaters of the Eylo River you will find the peace of mind you have been searching for all these years:

The Bent Bow Inn

When you arrive in Darkshire Hills choose Town Boundary #3 and take the left fork on the road. You will find us near the bridge.

Our inn is clean and tidy.

Our food is delicious and nourishing.

Our ale is unique and thirst quenching.

Especially after a long day of fishing along the headwaters.

Especially when you weren’t as lucky as you hoped you be today, but there is always tomorrow.

Come, eat, relax, and try again in the morning for that special fish that you know is there in the Eylo.

Yes, THAT big fish that you will tell all your friends about back home!

The Bent Bow Inn is managed by the Hawkins Family on behalf of the Byrd Family Holdings.

“See? We know where to look in Darkshire Hills now at least. The Bent Bow Inn.” Lucy seemed satisfied at least. I handed it to her.

“My family has properties I didn’t even know existed.” I shook my head sadly realizing that I really need to pay attention to that paperwork back at the Moontower Keep one day. Definitely one day soon.

Thirdly, there was a flyer for the local pub here in Ordanis Mortis, The Filthy Stag.

The Filthy Stag

Come on down to the oldest pub in all of Novia located along the mighty Eylo River in Ordanis Mortis.

You will want to come here and soak up the ambiance. Or at least soak up some of the suds. Don’t dress up. Trust us*

There is plenty to drink and all sorts of folks willing to play a friendly game of chance or share a secret or two.

We will never tell.

Find us straight north of the Town Crier. Or ask the Town Crier. He will know where we are. Bards are always welcome and will be given a meal.

*Wear boots as the floor may be sticky. *Leave your valuables somewhere safe.

Of course, we went to explore.

“Well, drat there isn’t anything here.” After sitting in the pub and playing song after song as well as a story or two, I had watched the entire room and there were no obvious Obsidians in the entire pub; we found little. Few would talk with us on such a personal topic of who they saw while they drank in the Filthy Stag, except one of the old locals remembered seeing a ranked mage with blue and green tattoos who was here one night muttering to himself for a few hours. The mage’s odd behavior spooked the locals. The Oldster didn’t know where that mage went when he rose up while “talking to the midair” and disappeared. Since there were no more drinks forthcoming from any of us he then left our table, grumbling under his breath.

“Weren’t right in the head, s’far as I could make out.” The old fella murmured into the dregs of his drink then went back to ignoring us all as best he could.

“We did find out how to catch a boat over by the docks to take us upriver to Darkshire Hills.” Zyrina said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, okay sure. One thing here was useful,” I conceded. “Information is always valuable.”

Though this interlude spurred us back to our mission, it shone no light on any of the things we understood. We now refocused on getting to Darkshire Hills as soon as possible. After paying for our meal and gathering up our belongings, we thanked the staff for the food and promised to be back next time any of us were anywhere near Ordanis Mortis.

From then on, we kept to ourselves on the road, stopping only to eat from our lavish meal leftovers that had been wrapped in freshly waxed cotton and placed in a woven basket along with another bottle of that sweet wine, Sangria. We rested occasionally and ate when we were hungry. The foliage changed as we trod the well-worn path through the North Majestic Forest, skirting the edge of the Grunvald Barrens and the Savrenoc Timberland as we kept traveling south along the winding trail that followed the Eylo River until Zyrina pointed out the Spectral Mountain chain.

There was a sturdy stone bridge to cross over a wide and deep crevasse with a fast-running river that gave us a great deal of trouble. This is where we turned and headed west into the Spectral Mountain range. We were expecting to have to tangle with bandits on this journey but, of course, the undead didn’t care about our expectations and attacked us on the bridge. Zyrina and I kept a storm of arrows flying as we all sprinted across and as far along the path as we could run while Lucy followed closely and kept a stream of heals pouring into each of us. Eventually the skeletons stopped running after us and went back to guarding their bridge just before we collapsed with exhaustion. Now THIS was adventurous and terrifying too; it sure got my blood pumping.

The exhilaration of battle took some time to dissipate. We worked well as an impromptu team and it took a few moments to relive the running battle while we rested and patched up our broken and jostled gear. We knew we would not have survived a pitched fight with the skeletons and were all especially relieved to have outrun them. The guard at the gates of Central Britanny had warned us of bandits on the road. I hadn’t thought they meant the undead but, from then on, we were far more wary of our surroundings. We slept rough and took turns on watch through the night. There was only one wandering skeleton that we easily outran and, within two days walk from Central Britanny, we had reached the southern edges of the Savrenoc Timberland. It smelled so fresh and vibrant high up in the foothills and the view of the fading peaks in the distance was breathtaking. I could always enjoy the scenery, even under the direst of dashes across the land. And Darkshire Hills was not far away from this fantastic resting spot.

Echoes From the Caverns

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07/28/2022 12:46 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 104 goes live July 28th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 104 (R104), we offer a host of bug fixes and a couple of notes from our developers.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been...

Play Release 104!

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07/28/2022 12:00 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 104 goes live July 28th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 104 (R104), we offer a host of bug fixes and a couple of notes from our developers.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

Unity 2021 Upgrade Status

We’ve been working hard to get Unity to the current 2021 LTS version and it’s finally completed and coming! After this release is out, we are going to put the new version on QA for players to test for the next month. Why are we waiting another release? Because we want to get things right. A lot of things have changed in Unity since 2018 and here are a few things to expect:

Better overall performance
The newest hardware and software will be better-supported
Terrain shaders have been updated and are faster. Some terrain settings have been refined to increase performance. These two changes in performance should affect RTX card users that previously had problems while looking at certain parts of the terrain after playing a while.
Shader changes to use D3D11 more efficiently
Loading time between scenes should have decreased by a few seconds
We now have access to better tools to expand the game with greater visual effects, like shader graph and the new terrains tool
The Unity 2021 editor is way more performant than the 2018 one, which is very good for us devs!

On a sad note, this new update to Unity took so much of our time this release that other planned projects were completely on hold for the month, but don’t despair: the best is yet to come!

With this said, we are hoping to see you in QA to test this with us!

– Devilcult

Ravalox’s Upcoming Plans

With Unity 2021 going to the QA testing phase, I will be concentrating on the long-overdue Lord of the Isle outstanding deliverables including the basement and working with Richard to hasten the silver rings to completion (based on his schedule, of course.) I will also be working on player dungeon bugs and, if all goes well, new rooms. Finally, I will also be getting back to working on the missing scene maps.

As we head into Q4, I want to coordinate with Devilcult in expanding the Lua API to better support players who want to coordinate events and run contests. This effort may include a basic Lua Add-on event sign-up tool that can be used as a springboard for our community Lua scripters. This is still at the drawing-board stage, so be patient while we make things better!

As we continue to sweep the website and improve the functionality some exciting changes will be coming including the elimination of the new-player paywall meant to prevent spammers from accessing the forums. Changes need to be made in the way accounts are created to implement this, so please be patient as we update the structure.

– Ravalox

Portalarium Reference Replacement

Mail Icon A pass has been made on changing references to Portalarium to either Shroud of the Avatar or Catnip Games, as appropriate, on the website, in the End User License Agreement and the Terms of Service, in game, in player reference documents, and (most importantly to note) in the support email address.

Customer Service can now be contacted at support@shroudoftheavatar.com. Mail sent to the old Portalarium address will continue to be received for a period of time to be determined as needed, but please change your address books now!

Release 104 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 104 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R104 is a polish month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R105 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 104!

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

Fixed rotation issues with several recent pieces of liturgical furniture. This will mean that ones currently placed, and anything that may be placed on them, may need to be adjusted. SOTA-70576
Fixed recipe categories for Potion of Distilled Light Unicorn Blood and Restoration Potion, Imbued. SOTA-70649
Fixed incorrect names on Forest Mangler upgrade recipes. SOTA-70519
Fixed misspelling of Arapaima. SOTA-70648
Fixed name inconsistency with decorative grape vines. SOTA-70646
Fixed incorrect light position on Tall Candle Stand.
Fixed visual issues with Dinner Bench deco preview. SOTA-70415
Removed incorrect description from Wooden Trough. SOTA-70516

Combat & Skill Changes:

The skill combo Splintering Strike will now do purely physical damage that is not mitigated by the magic resistance of the target.
The emotes Bird Trick and Golden Bird Trick should now display correctly. SOTA-70650

User Interface, Store Information, & Lua Changes:

Minimaps should now work correctly while in dungeons (that have maps) and not snap to center when the player stops moving.

World and Quest Changes:

Pumpkin Head in battle

The Luminous Atavist has gone into hiding and Pumpkin Head has resumed terrorizing Drachvald. SOTA-69360
Added ‘Return to Previous Location’ boats to the Player-Run Towns that are not islands, but do have docks, such as Port Titan.
Battle of Solace Bridge: Moved “Use the Z key…” tip to before the first zombie (prior to the first bridge). SOTA-70668
Blood River Outskirts: Accepting Alberic’s “Poison Vigilante Food Supply” task will now properly clear the “Poison Elven Food or Tell Alberic” compass markers. SOTA-70666
Castle Atos: Adjusted the distance for sound effects from flies that were reaching into nearby rooms. SOTA-70680
Castle Atos: Fixed two 1-way ladders to now be used as 2-way ladders. SOTA-70675
East Longfall Wetland: Added additional ankhs.
Grusk Factory: Underdwellers will now have “Pale One” in their display names. Tougher ones will be named “Enduring Pale One.”
Grusk Factory: Fixed pathfinding issues in the processing (wave battle) room. SOTA-70653
Grusk Factory: Added additional z-fighting fixes for the ceiling of the rooms with gears under the floor. SOTA-70640
Grusk Factory: Created new “Lesser Magic Empowerment” rune effect. Fixed and improved magic attunement field gimmick. SOTA-70637
Highvale Outskirts: The quest from Marissa the Crafting Trainer to find resources now has her wave her hands with blue sparkles and has proper compass markers. SOTA-70667
Jotungrund: Fixed bad grammar in one of Wymond’s responses.
Kingsport: Nahche no longer has multiple simultaneous responses when you tell him your name. SOTA-65271
Owl’s Head: Updated some titles and responses for several NPCs, including John the Doorman. SOTA-70673
Plains Encounter: Fixed an issue where both the default dragon set and Aether dragon set were spawning, where it should have only been one or the other. SOTA-70679
Resolute: Adjusted the actions of Janet Kallen the gate guard to help ensure she opens her gate the first and every time. SOTA-70656
The Rise: Corrected naming inconsistencies with all common elf enemies. Added special “Obsidian” name variants for Obsidian Elves. In the “Gallery” library, the Tier 16 elf caster is now named “Obsidian Archivist” and has some unique barks. Also, updated the spawning of the elves in the gallery to be dynamic instead of static (meaning instead of respawning individually after a set time, they now begin repopulating as a dynamic set). SOTA-70677
Solace Bridge Outskirts: Fixed typos in responses for Corporal Heloise.
Ulfheim: Fixed the scaling of many oversized ore nodes. SOTA-70678
Valhold Palace: Updated the barks for Mara and Essen that happen while escorting them to work better with the timing of their respective escorts. SOTA-70655

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Argent Aspis: Changed biome to Snowy Mountains 01.
Crafters Town: Upgraded to Metropolis.
Lained: Upgraded to Hamlet.
Pumpkinville: Upgraded to Hamlet, removed PvP.
Rajazel: Upgraded to Metropolis.
Silver Springs Market: Upgraded to Hamlet.
Umbra Regnum: Renamed from Regnum. Change biome to Forest 01a from Mountain 01. Moved to near Soltown in Novia.

R104 Map of Novia

Latest News and Q&A Livestream

The post-release Community Livestream is Friday, July 29th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “Make a splash” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream, and we’ll even be periodically posting answers to some unanswered questions in the forums. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live frequently on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

Release 104 Subscriber Login Rewards

Have a friend help you keep cool! The Rewards Program login items for Release 104 are a Miniature Water Elemental decoration pet and a Metal Coat of Arms for dressing up a wall.

Miniature Water Elemental

Metal Coat of Arms

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 104 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

August Login Reward

Each account that logs in during the month of August will receive a one-time gift of a pair of Small Nightstands.

Small Nightstand

Crown Store Updates

On August 1st, the length of sales in the crown store will be adjusted from two hours to eight, to hopefully find a sweet spot between quick enough to be draw regular interest but slow enough to let people have a good chance of catching them.

New in the crown store for August 19th:

Miniature Water Elemental

The Lord British store items are available until Friday August 5th:

2014 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2016 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2017 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2018 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2019 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2020 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2021 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2022 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
Lord British Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Lord British Cloak
Lord British Fur Collared Cloak
Lord British Moondial
Lord British Pavers
Lord British Round Table
Lord British Salute Emote
Lord British Shield
Lord British Shield Pattern Pack

The Summer Seasonal store items are available until Sunday September 25th:

Firedancer Outfit
Fire Dance Emote
Fire Dance Cross Emote
Flame Scimitar
Flame Shield
Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
Flaming Bagpipes
Hula Emote
Island Spear
Island Flower Crown
Island Dress

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Blue Butterfly Pet
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2022 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 104 – July 28 (Polish)
Release 105 – August 25 (Polish)
Release 106 – September 29 (Content)
Release 107 – October 27 (Polish)
Release 108 – November 17 (Polish)
Release 109 – December 15 (Polish)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Recurring Events:

Monthly Release Fishing Contests: This will be a rotating, multi-location contest sponsored and organised by Rajazel, The Town Museum and its Governor Diablotine.
Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
RHEC Traveling Pop-Up Fishing Contest: Keep an eye out in universe chat, trade chat, and the forums! Asmodi M’hul will routinely announces at least one pop-up fishing contest every week for those anglers out there anxious for extra prizes and fun!
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Lightbringer Isle hosts a monthly auction held the Sunday after release at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Core Books Bundle! If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this unique gaming system and setting, now’s your chance! This bundle includes two beautifully illustrated, full-color, hardcover books: the original Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts book! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! While not yet live, they plan to release later this year and you can join the closed beta now by pre-ordering from embersadrift.com. Check out their newly released video here:

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

View the full article

07/14/2022 07:19 AM

Recently Winston announced that he was ceasing to continue the monthly contests he was driving. These contests had always been intended to be driven by the community. The additions and complexities that were introduced into the contest structure kept him busy most of the time. As he is now going to be AFK for an extended time, and with no other Devs able to take on the responsibility with Winston away and unable to consistently maintain them he decided to cease operations.

We are working...

Dev Run In-game Contests and Events

View the full article

07/07/2022 01:29 PM

As seen on last week's stream:

All during the month of July, we are offering an amnesty to any players who have character names that violate the Community Guidelines/TOS.

This means that if you know or think you mane may violate the naming rules, we are providing a chance to contact support and get your character's name changed for free.

After July is over, we will be changing names that are in violation using a Fae name generator. If your character name is changed at that point a...

Character Name Amnesty!

View the full article

07/01/2022 05:21 AM

Greetings everyone!!

The long awaited return of the SotA Make a Difference charity store has become a reality!

Please check out the web store here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=51225

(We still need to add the link into the Store Menu, that should be done shortly. Until then I have added a link in the Add-On store page.)

View the full article

06/30/2022 03:13 AM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 103 goes live June 30th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 103 (R103), we offer a new underground scene, Grusk Factory, and the return of the Make a Difference store.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring...

Play Release 103!

View the full article

06/30/2022 02:30 AM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 103 goes live June 30th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 103 (R103), we offer a new underground scene, Grusk Factory, and the return of the Make a Difference store.

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

New Scene: Grusk Factory

The lobby of Grusk Factory

Grusk is a bustling community tended by countless automatons in a variety of roles. The continuous demand for them, locally as well as for export, is met by the underground Grusk Factory: the largest clockwork manufacturing facility in the world! Business is booming and new caverns are being bored even now to expand the growing workspace.

Unfortunately, the Factory has suspended tours during its blasting operations for the safety of the crew. Outlanders with Episode 2 access attempting to tour the Factory will be treated as intruders. Should you and your party plan a self-guided visit to this tier 8+ scene from the Factory yard in Grusk, be aware: with so many moving parts, there’s bound to be some dangers. Visitors to the Factory should wear suitable protective gear and be mindful of tricky hazards. Finally, engineers crawling back from the newest tunnels have babbled about unspeakable horrors! …but such things would be in the newest tunnels, far from the production floors any Avatar would be interested in seeing.

The Return of the Make a Difference Store

Charity items are returning to the web store starting July 1st (the first day of the year’s third quarter). Each quarter, 20% of the proceeds from these items will be donated to the relevant charities. The few charity items that were in the in-game Crown store have been moved to the web store. When it’s active, the store can be reached here.

Wishing Well and Juggle Pink Lights

List of Make a Difference store items:

Autism Awareness Charity

Blue Standing Torches
Epic Puzzle Tree
Juggle Blue Torches Emote
Puzzle 4-Pack
Puzzle Package
Puzzle Pattern Cloak
Puzzle Piece Blue Floor Lantern
Puzzle Piece Blue Wall Sconce
Puzzle Tree 6-Pack
Puzzle Tree Cloak
Tabletop Puzzle Tree 3-Pack

Breast Cancer Charity

Countach Package
Countach Phonograph
Countach Pink Dye 12-Pack
Countach Wax Cylinders
Countach: An Album Cover
Juggle Pink Lights Emote
Pink Dual Wax Cylinder Phonograph with Emotes
Pink Electric Katana (to be added in the near future)
Pink Electric Katana Pattern Pack (to be added in the near future)
Pink Electric Sword
Pink Electric Sword Pattern Pack
Shooter Jennings Heraldry Art

Children & Family Charities

Doctor’s Outfit
Doctor’s Outfit Pattern Pack
Exodus by Helen Garriott
Hospital Decorations Set
Hospital Mega Set
Hospital Sign 9-Pack
Hospital Wearables Set
Nurse’s Outfit
Nurse’s Outfit Pattern Pack
Ornate Head Bandage
Ornate Head Bandage Pattern Pack
Ornate Hospital Bed
Ornate Hospital Cloth Room Dividers
Ornate Hospital Gown
Ornate Hospital Gown Pattern Pack
Ornate IV Stand
Ornate Surgical Tray with Instruments
Ornate Wheelchair
Skylab Dish by Helen Garriott

Movember

Moustache Cloak
Moustache Helm
Moustache Helm Pattern Pack
Moustache Shield
Moustache Shield Pattern Pack

Nature Charity

Earth Magic Cloak
Reaper Sapling

Safe Water and Sanitation Charity

Kobold Indoor Toilet
Ornate Outhouse
Rain Emote
Water Magic Cloak
Water Package
Water.org Charity Mega Set
Water.Org Fur Collared Cloak
Water.Org Glowing Mug
Wishing Well

Release 103 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 103 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R103 is a content month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R104 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 103!

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

Added food recipes for the recently-added fetid fish: Barramundi, Tigerfish, and Araipama. SOTA-70565
Set Bottle of Wine deco to be stackable. SOTA-70596
Adjusted the 2022 cupcakes to also have slight learning speed bonus.
Added instructions in the descriptions of Recall and Teleport scrolls.
Reduced size of fishing dead zones and and changed dead zone depth to relate to fishing skill.
Adjusted cost of Altar Lockbox recipe: increased iron bindings cost and tier of wood. SOTA-70599
Made Acara’s Shield legacy version placeable as deco. SOTA-70032
Fixed incorrect regeneration bonus on confection eggs.
Fixed incorrect channel weight for Oyster Potpie. SOTA-69775

Combat & Skill Changes:

Changed some summons’ stats/skills to balance them with other, stronger summons:
- Daemon – Chaos bolt damage has been increased. Attunements and fire damage over time sub-effects will now scale with chaos mastery. Strength of daemon has been slightly reduced. Movement speed has slightly increased.
- Fire Elemental – Added a chance to add fire damage over time with fire elemental attack. Dexterity increased.
- Air Elemental – Air elemental attack will now have a chance to stun their opponent. Strength, intelligence, and dexterity have also been increased.
- Phoenix – Damage has been significantly increased and the phoenix will now have a chance to blind enemies, reducing their damage avoidance. Strength, dexterity, and intelligence have been increased.
- Ice Elemental – Range of attack has been reduced from 2 to 1 so elemental will move closer to enemies when hitting. The ice elemental now has a chance to add a slow movement debuff to their opponents.
A pass has been done on tamed pets. The high critical damage of tamed pet has been reduced. To compensate for the lost damage, tamed pets will now have their critical damage multiplier scale with taming mastery and the tamed pet’s adventure level. The strength of pets has also been increased and scaled, which gives more base damage. Note that this only affects tamed pets, not summoned creatures.
More changes will be coming in the next patch for tames and summons to complete this work.
The pet damage bonus from the pet gear component “iron studded strip” would previously give about 15 damage each strip, so would give a total of 45 damage per piece of gear. This has been significantly reduced to give about 15 damage for each piece of gear. Meanwhile, bronze studded strip’s critical hit damage multiplier has been significantly increased from 2% to 10% for each strip, so goes from 6% a piece to 30% per piece of gear. This affects both tamed pets and summoned creatures.
Renamed “Tame Attack Precision” which was found on some taming equipment to “Tame Critical Hit Chance.”
Increased pet perma-death timer so it’s not the same as the player resurrection timer. SOTA-70526
Encumbrance will no longer affect players in PvP battlegrounds.
Fixed a visual issue with using items that scale character height while mounted.

User Interface, Store Information, & Lua Changes:

Added a loading tip about placing Recall Scrolls in your toolbar.
Added a scrollbar to the text area of the post-game feedback form and a checkbox to hide the form in the future.
Added links in the feedback form to the bug forum and to Discord.
Fixed a rare null exception that prevented the character sheet from being filled upon loading a scene.
Fixed journal UI when completing a task.
Added ShroudIsSoundPlaying function to Lua.
Fixed the volume setting of a sound when played with Lua.
The creation date of certain items like fish will now show NBT time like in game.
Fixed exceptions related to claiming rewards in offline mode.
Salt will now show as Salt Deposit in scene information pop-ups. SOTA-70521
Vendors that have no name set by the player (use the default name) will now show a compass marker when using the Get Directions button in the zone vendor listings. SOTA-70577
Fixed a typo in the virtue balloon’s store listing. SOTA-70523

World and Quest Changes:

Placed fireworks for Lord British’s birthday on the overworld over many of the major cities and automated them to always display during the first weekend of July.
Novia and Mistrendur: Improved some ambient sounds. SOTA-70547
Added some additional songs to some scenes.
Created new kobold banners and added them to the major kobold communities.
Removed extra Altar Lockbox recipe from merchants.
Updated Town Crier conversation to explain binding and improved the associated yes/no phrases.
Updated some of the Helpful Automatons’ keywords and responses.
Aerie: Added a compass marker for Bunker T. SOTA-70605
Aerie: Fixed typos in responses of Oakie Lawrence.
Blood River Outskirts: Updated journal and tasks related to Alberic’s task to help refugees, including adding specifics to mention “help” to NPCs. Added tips to mention “help” to NPCs on a loading screen and in the Player Guide. SOTA-70568
Blood River Outskirts: Corrected a bandit name to “Vigilante.” SOTA-70594
Blood River Outskirts: Fixed a stuck spot in the wilderness. SOTA-70593
Castle Atos: Created new banners and added new decorations for special events. Added pennants in preparation for Lord British’s birthday. Changed celebration decorations to be automated “Timed Events.”
Caverns of Skrekk: Updated Korabar’s and Krishach’s conversations to help clear the “Speak with Krishach” task. Improved the tasks and compass markers related to Korabar’s ‘finale.’ Players with a lingering “Speak with Krishach” task should be able to speak with the “after” version of Korabar to clear it. SOTA-70548
Caverns of Skrekk: Fixed a typo in one of Korabar’s required responses.
Desolis: Updated compass marker used for the Loreley’s Sketchbook tasks. SOTA-70601
Elysium Mines: Added a milling station and coal to the scene.
Elysium Mines: Fixed pathing on a silver ore node. SOTA-70554
Grusk: Added a compass marker for the Grusk Factory entrance.
Grusk: Fixed multiple ladders that had lower targets which were below the ground. SOTA-70592
Grusk Factory: Removed “Factory Steward” title from enemy mushrooms. SOTA-70608
Grusk Factory: Added a switch to help exit the ‘two-person’ room. SOTA-70602
Grusk Factory: Adjusted a doorway that was too low for tall characters. SOTA-70607
Grusk Factory: Blocked a stuck spot behind a wooden platform. SOTA-70612
Grusk Factory: Closed a gap in the tunnel wall. SOTA-70610
Grusk Factory: Fixed z-fighting on a wall in the processing room. SOTA-70611
Highvale Outskirts: Updated the compass marker for returning an obsidian elf bow to Horatio to be “Give Bow to Horatio.” SOTA-70590
Highvale Outskirts: Updated the quest compass markers for Sven’s magical copper ore quest. SOTA-70595
Highvale Outskirts: Fixed several typos in journal entries. SOTA-70591
Hills Encounter: Activated Aether Dragons.
Kingsport Sewers: Fixed several prison doors and their switches that had shifted. SOTA-70553
Kobold Expeditionary Camp: Fixed an issue where players would prematurely get a task by killing Mongo when not in the proper quest stage. SOTA-70545
Lamech’s Bazaar and South Midmaer Way: Moved lanterns from atop destructable objects to solid platforms. SOTA-70575
Lord British’s Castle: Fixed an occlusion issue so some windows can be seen through.
Lord British’s Castle: Updated loading screen image.
Midmaer Passage: Fixed issues with the water visuals. SOTA-70546
Necropolis Barrens: Cotton nodes are now correctly set for Tier 5. Fixed an unharvestable letter node. SOTA-70559, SOTA-70555
Norgard Fens: Improved the collision and path grid within a kobold room to prevent NPCs being pushed through the walls. SOTA-70556
Norgard Fens: Moved a floating tree to the ground and improved some of the pathing in the kobold outpost. SOTA-70589
Northwood: Smoothed the material transition on terrain near a certain housing lot to remove a visible line. SOTA-70551
Resolute: Godbert should no longer give players the “Get Report from Cyannis” task if they already have the report or have already turned it in. Also, updated the task so that if it lingers in the UI it has a better chance to automatically archive itself when the avatar changes scenes. SOTA-70573
Ruins of Ravensmoor: Fixed an issue with spiders getting stuck on rubble. SOTA-70558
Solace Bridge Outskirts: Approaching the shack near the swamp now pops up a message warning the avatar to exit combat before they approach to avoid accidentally attacking the resident. The message can appear only once each day. The associated task completes when you talk to Hartley or stand next to the shack.
Solace Bridge Outskirts: Fixed a black pearl node so it can be harvested. SOTA-70557
Solania Catacombs: Added combat barks and loot to Mistress Valdis. SOTA-70606
Tanglemire: Updated loading screen image.
The Obsidian Trials: Fixed small errors in the responses from the trader NPC.
Ulfheim: Updated the colors used by Banamathr the dragon.
Valhold Palace: Moved a camera target used by Grannus to stop his conversation from being blocked. SOTA-70552
Valhold Palace: Removed “line of sight” requirement for Grannus’ conversations. SOTA-70552

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Fet City: Removed POT from game.
Pumpkinville: Changed name from Bodega of Blood. Changed biome to Tropical Island 01.
Shearwater Island: Upgraded to Town from Crossroads Village.

Latest News and Q&A July Livestreams

There will be a livestream every Friday this Release, with the 15th’s being an extended session with Lord British!

The post-release Community Livestream is Friday, July 1st at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “Happy Birthday Lord British” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream, and we’ll even be periodically posting answers to some unanswered questions in the forums. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live frequently on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

Sales and Bonus Events

To commemorate the birth of Lord British:

Double XP will be turned on until end-of-day July 4th. It will also be turned on for the extended livestream with Lord British on July 15th, lasting through end-of-day July 18th.
Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off through July 18th.
Crown store items and deed upgrades will be 30% off for the whole of Release 103.
Player Owned Town upgrades for Crowns of the Obsidians will be 20% off for the whole of Release 103. These upgrades may only be initiated by an email to Support.

Also watch for specific sales happening each weekend!

Release 103 Subscriber Login Rewards

Subscribers, sate yourself on storage, sugar, and shine. The Rewards Program login items for Release 103 include a Redwood Display Table (with container), 2 Long Candlesticks, 2 Small Candlesticks, and a set of 2022 Cupcakes.

Subscriber Login Rewards

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 103 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

July Login Reward

In honor of Lord British’s Birthday, each account that logs in during the month of July will receive a one-time gift of half a dozen slices of Lord British Birthday Cake and half a dozen Fireworks (Red-White-Blue Missiles).

Fireworks over Brittany

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for release day:

Replenishing Lord British Birthday Cake 2022

Red Rottweiler

Indestructible Lava Fishing Rod

Grass and Tree Removers Pack (to be added in an early patch)

Arriving July 19th:

Redwood Display Table

Small Candlestick 4-Pack

Long Candlestick 4-Pack

The Lord British store items are available until Friday August 5th:

2014 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2016 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2017 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2018 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2019 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2020 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2021 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
2022 Lord British Replenishing Birthday Cake
Lord British Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Lord British Cloak
Lord British Fur Collared Cloak
Lord British Moondial
Lord British Pavers
Lord British Round Table
Lord British Salute Emote
Lord British Shield
Lord British Shield Pattern Pack

The Summer Seasonal store items are available until Sunday September 25th:

Firedancer Outfit
Fire Dance Emote
Fire Dance Cross Emote
Flame Scimitar
Flame Shield
Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
Flaming Bagpipes
Hula Emote
Island Spear
Island Flower Crown
Island Dress

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Blue Butterfly Pet
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2022 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 103 – June 30 (Content)
Release 104 – July 28 (Polish)
Release 105 – August 25 (Polish)
Release 106 – September 29 (Content)
Release 107 – October 27 (Polish)
Release 108 – November 17 (Polish)
Release 102 – December 15 (Polish)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Catnip Games Contests:

Catnip Games Monthly Fishing Tourney: Greetings Anglers! The monthly Catnip Games Fishing Tourney is live! Join in on the fun! The R103 Fishing Tournament runs from 01 Jul 2022 at 12:00 AM CDT (00:00) to 28 Jul 2022 at 11:59 PM CDT (23:59). Note that the R102 Tournament is still running for a few more hours until midnight on Release 103 day; you can still compete for the longest fish in the R102 tournament! Details for R103’s contest are posted here!

Catnip Games Monthly Treasure Hunting Contest: Want to go hunting for rare items? Want to see if you can beat other players in this quest for treasure? Well join in on the monthly treasure hunting contest, Avatars! The R103 Treasure Hunt runs from 1 Jul 2022 at 12:00 AM CDT (00:00) to 28 Jul 2022 at 11:59 PM CDT (23:59). Note that the R102 Hunt is still running for a few more hours until midnight on Release 103 day; you can still compete in the R102 Hunt! Details for R103’s contest are posted here!

Recurring Events:

Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
Combat & Crafting Sunday School: Head on over to Immortal City every Sunday from 7PM to 9PM CT to learn the tricks of the trade in combat and crafting!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
RHEC Traveling Pop-Up Fishing Contest: Keep an eye out in universe chat, trade chat, and the forums! Asmodi M’hul will routinely announces at least one pop-up fishing contest every week for those anglers out there anxious for extra prizes and fun!
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Lightbringer Isle has changed their auction from weekly to monthly, to be held the Sunday after release at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Core Books Bundle! If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this unique gaming system and setting, now’s your chance! This bundle includes two beautifully illustrated, full-color, hardcover books: the original Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts book! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! While not yet live, they plan to release later this year and you can join the closed beta now by pre-ordering from embersadrift.com. Check out their newly released video here:

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

View the full article

06/29/2022 03:34 AM

Read by Asclepius

Chapter Seven. The Dirty Scoundrel.

Arriving near town after a short walk through a lovely bucolic meadow and past some impressive ruins, we could hear the babbling river and soon enough came upon an old, curved stone bridge covered with lichen. I paused and had a good gawk all around from the bridge then followed the others under the arch of a tall stone clock tower. Stepping off the bridge, all I could smell was fresh bread baking. As a group, we paused to get oriented at the local bulletin board near the clock tower and Zyrina spotted another ad for Ye Olde Pickled Spinster. We were on the right trail for a bed and possibly a bath. And definitely some supper. I knew exactly where to go.

“I recognize this smell. I know that bakery.” I began to broadly smile. “She’s baked my favorite sweet.” My mouth was watering. I could smell the lemons now. This was heartening and irresistible. Lucy was also visibly buoyed by the prospect of some food and even started whistling her wandering song again. We naturally followed our noses to the southwest and soon came upon the source of the delightful scents: Bread and Roses.

Lucy was first through the door to the small bakery but Zyrina slipped through right after and I did too, once I’d taken a minute to admire the many roses still in full bloom. Oh, the sights, the smells. The memories of travels past. The sugar and yeast bread combination were doubly heady pleasures after my diet of dried nuts and fruits, soda-bread, and cheese while in flight across Novia for nearly three weeks at this point. Cheese and nuts don’t have a chance compared to a freshly baked sticky lemon bun. Especially one of Alley’s pastries.

Alley Oop looked up and smiled right at me.

“Hi Alley.” I shyly offered.

“By the Titans! What brings you this far north, Lily?” She asked on her way over to give me a quick hug.

“Following our noses to your bakery.” I said this with a grin. We were not the only customers in the place and Alley was pressed back into service.

When I had a chance after the crowd had thinned, I asked “Do you have any lemon buns left?” I didn’t see any in the display though I could smell the lemon.

Alley pulled a dozen fresh ones out from a hiding spot under her counter and winked at me. Now I was truly grinning.

“Thanks, you remembered.” I smiled again pleased that my friend was thoughtful enough to put a bag of lemon buns aside when she saw me in her shop.

“Course I did.”

After introducing the baker to Lucy and to Zyrina, Lucy and Alley struck up a conversation and I tucked into the first of my buns as I could wait no longer. Then nothing else existed for a few moments.

“Your word?” I could hear Lucy ask Alley. Alley nodded emphatically and grinned, handing a large bag of sticky sweet cinnamon breads to Lucy.

“Yes, I absolutely know Aslinne Gradh. She comes through trading her lemons and offering good fresh news at least once a year, sometimes twice. She’s friends with the cook at the Dirty Scoundrel.” She nodded out the door across the green.

Alley then waved hello to Zyrina and said pleasantly, “Good to meet you Zyrina, welcome to Stinging Tree Hollow. What can I get for you?”

Zyrina shook her head and waved her off.

“Nothing? Suit yourself.” She handed Zyrina a cheese bun and surprisingly Rina took it, sniffed it, and took a big bite of it.

“I take it none of you strayed from the path on the way into town. or you would all be in some proper discomfort by now. This town is aptly named, of course.” She looked at our limbs searchingly but seemed satisfied with our health in the end.

“Yeah, we’d been warned.” I nodded in the direction of Zyrina who had cautioned Lucy earlier when she tried to leave the path to explore a mushroom nearby that she didn’t recognize. Stinging Trees, grown all throughout the area are excruciatingly painful to encounter and, though Lucy carried healing salve (as did I), after hearing Zyrina’s recollection of the pain of the sting I wasn’t willing to chance the contact. Though I had been in this town several times I had not once thought that the woods nearby might hold such dangers, but I didn’t often wander off the trail either.

Alley continued, “However, now that your stomachs have been tempered let me take you next door for a proper welcome.” She took off her apron and gestured out the door to the building nearly next to the bakery, “At Ye Olde Pickled Spinster.” She turned to put up her closed sign and I exchanged a little glance with Zyrina. She raised her eyebrows in question, and I shrugged in reply. Then we followed Alley out of the bakery and into the Inn.

This was truly a small land in that, even this far across the continent, we had run into yet another person who is friends with Aslinne Gradh.

Once inside the inn and seated at a long wooden table after our drinks were served and we had slaked our parched mouths, Alley Oop explained.

“She trades all up and down the seaboard. How can I not know her? Plus, her fish stew is about the best I’ve ever tasted, though I’ve tried to duplicate it. She trades fairly. Always has a fair bit of news to share, too. How do you not know her?” She turned to me.

“She is the cook on my sister’s ship.”

“Captain Violet Green is your sister?”

“Sure is. You know Violet too?”

“Yup, she’s been through a few times. She’s fond of sugar cookies.”

“Yup, that’s Violet,” I nodded.

This new connection startled me a little, but I recovered quickly and ordered another round of ale. “We are actually trying to find her right now,” I pointed out. “Have you seen her recently?”

Alley shook her head and took a deep satisfying swig of her tankard.

I was beginning to remember why I liked drinking with her. She frolicked as fiercely as she fought. Maybe that’s why her bread rose to such heights. I’m sure she could beat it to submission and not even bat an eye. Tough as nails. Smart as a whip and kind, too. I soon found the piano and we screeched and wailed late into the afternoon, entertaining ourselves as surely as we annoyed those around us who did not share our exuberance. Our group spent the next few hours enjoying a good round of drinking and eating.

“Any mages about the place?” I mumbled, licking my sticky fingers.

Lucy giggled, busy with her second pot pie. Zyrina grunted at my humor and looked around at the now completely empty reception room where we had commandeered the long table and chairs for our meal. Alley took a sip of her ale and shrugged.

“Maybe there is another place that is more suitable to illicit dealings? This looks… comfortable? Cozy? Certainly, it doesn’t look like any Obsidian sympathizers are booked into rooms here.” I remarked, looking around the room we were in. There were comfortable chairs and a sofa near the fireplace, a game of chess to play and these long tables where we sat eating and talking.

“That’s a good point Lily, this doesn’t look like somewhere mages dressed in black with a bent for starting fires would be comfortable at all.” Lucy was emphatically nodding and there were bits of flaky crust falling all around her as she did. She had opened her backpack and was sorting through her herbs one by one, while she finished eating her last sticky bun.

“You could try the Dirty Scoundrel,” suggested Alley pointing out the door and nodding across the square before returning to her conversation with Lucy, who had found the little herb they were discussing. They both were examining the leaves and engrossed in the topic.

Zyrina was standing looking out the front door, “Perhaps. Wait here for me. I will have a better chance of finding something out without any of you along.”

I must admit it stung a little to be thought of as superfluous, but I could see her point. A bunch of us were a bit noticeable and not likely to overhear much if we were together. I gave a searching look straight into Zyrina’s clear eyes. They were calm and calculating but not frightened. It was quite reassuring.

“Alright, be careful,” I gave a little nod in agreement. “Lu? Agreed?”

Lucy laughed at something Alley said about the plant in her hand and nodded distractedly. As we had found an inn with yet another cook friend of Aslinne’s, she was deep in conversation and waved us off without even really paying attention. Now they began discussing some sort of salmon dish with potatoes in a hand pie that I didn’t really pay attention to as I watched Zyrina quietly make her way across the square and disappear into a rundown building closer to the water.

Having exhausted all my best stories about Zyrina and her adventures while entertaining Lucy and Alley, Zyrina reappeared, ruffled and staggering a lot but otherwise unharmed.

“You won’t believe what I found out.” Her slurred speech was difficult to follow. “Dan shez…” She trailed off then she simply keeled over, passed out.

“Oh, for pity sake. Who’s Dan?” I was a little annoyed but helped Lucy carry her up the stairs to our room and set her carefully on the bed.

“She’ll come around and tell us, stop pacing.”

As usual, Lucy’s common sense did sink in and I realized I, too, was staggering a little, so I joined Zyrina on the bed and, far too soon, felt the warming rays of dawn upon my face.

I shook myself awake alone in the room, quickly washed up and headed downstairs. I definitely wanted breakfast and dawdling would not procure food.

Zyrina was up and had changed her clothes. She had some papers spread out in front of her on the table intermixed with her breakfast dishes. Her head was cradled in her arms on the table. Lucy was slurping a strong-looking tea and munching on sticky buns from the heaping plate on the long table. Alley Oop was thoughtfully sipping her tea and reading some sort of manual making changes with a quill dipped in fresh black ink as she read.

“Morning,” I mumbled heading for the teapot.

“MMmhmm,” was all that Lucy managed.

Zyrina raised her head “Morning. Sorry I failed to stay awake last night.” She grimaced at hearing her own voice loud and raw.

“Rina, you didn’t fail. I am betting you were in a drinking contest, weren’t you?”

She flashed me a quick smile, winced, and ducked her head, “Yup.”

“You won?”

“Yup.”

“What did you learn?” I was fully awake now. Zyrina didn’t drink like that regularly. She would have done only for a particularly vital reason.

“There WAS a guy who knew too much, called Dingo Danny. The owner doesn’t care who drinks there as long as they pay in labor, gold, or COTOS and Dingo Danny helps the cook in exchange for a pint or two every couple days or so.”

At this comment, Alley grunted and nodded agreement, “Pete says anyone is welcome if they want to work for their drinks.”

Zyrina continued, “The proprietor introduced him, but he didn’t vouch for Dan,” is all she said about it. She quietly started to lay out the papers in front of her so I could see them.

“This is what I heard. So, a couple of weeks ago there were three strangers in town, dressed in Obsidian robes. They sat and talked in the Dirty Scoundrel for several hours. Dingo Dan kept these bits and pieces one of their drunk assistants left behind because he hoped they’d come back and claim them, and then Dan would get a tip.” Here she looked disgusted. “He was a vile pig but easily led.”

Then Zyrina added, “I got interested when Dan told me that the men were bothered that they couldn’t find one simple tattooed mage traveling alone. Eventually he…offered…me the papers in exchange for continuing to breath.”

My raised eyebrows and then narrowed my eyes a little. They were the only comments I made about how Rina’s collected papers were acquired. Nodding, I had a good look through some of the pages: It was a meandering speech by someone called Nestor about adhering to the rules, discipline, and punishment…and ordering a manhunt for a mage from Elysium that had disappeared with a rare and special artifact. That sounded like the mage we also sought.

Lucy brushed off the crumbs and leaned in to read for herself, “’…bring the book, the mage is expendable…’?”

“And Lily, there was this too.” She handed me a letter with handwriting I already recognized.

“Finn Beanna!”

I picked up the letter:

Nestor,

I’ve seen that mage you asked me to keep an eye out for.

Yup, he came from Spindleskog. Don’t know where he went. He was traveling alone. Yup, he had a small leather-bound book with him.

Three fellas in black came by just afterward. I don’t take kindly to being roughed up. No, I do NOT know anything about a dragon egg. I thought we had an established arrangement. Since this is how you value my information sharing, our arrangement is over. My debt is paid.

Finn

“Well, blast that little weasel. He sure has his hooks in every pie in town.” I could not believe the audacity.

“There’s more,” Zyrina handed me yet another paper.

Nestor,

Before you meet him at Los Gardeñias in Ordanis Mortis, I want to assure you I have managed to find out that the mage still has the book.

He wrote, to tell me he has something important to think about. And he says he has an important decision to make. He is still traveling and was last reported on a ship called the Sea Byrd.

It left from the Mistrendur Islands last autumn. I haven’t heard from any of the others from his cabal yet. Are we sure any others are alive? I have planned to meet with him in the usual spot and try to talk some sense into the lad.

Regardless, I will take the book back with or without his cooperation. We will have it in time for the great gathering of the Red Sashes and the Southern Red Branch. I’m certain of it.

Order shall prevail,

S

“I wonder where this usual spot is?” I pondered as I lay the paper back down with the others. “Seems to me that that mage is running from everyone, known or unknown to him. I wonder if he has abandoned his beliefs. What’s a ‘great gathering’?”

“S?” I asked. “Who the Titans is that?”

Zyrina shrugged “No idea.”

“Is Kitty still traveling with Aslinne?” Lucy joined in the questioning.

I shrugged perplexed, “I have no idea.”

“And lastly, there was this,” she held up the smallest piece of paper.

2 – 1 – 1

R-2

I nodded, not even trying to figure out what they mean this time, and just simply added the numbers to the rest. I would need some more time to figure out what they were all about.

“So, we still don’t know where Aslinne is, nor Kitty, nor the mage with the book either.” I sighed.

“We need to continue to backtrack Aslinne to Darkshire, and I want to stop at this restaurant where Nestor had a meeting with the mage.” Zyrina was examining the letter from S. “We might learn something.”

“Aslinne was going there too, remember? Do you think she is one of the mages?” Lucy pondered out loud.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“It’s the one we’ve been talking about. That famous place in Ordanis Mortis. It’s on the way to Darkshire, just downstream as a matter of fact.” Lucy had some very precise memory skills when it came to the location of good food and good drink. She spoke while reading over Zyrina’s shoulder. “Los Gardeñias.”

“It’s run by a woman called List Rostov.” I added. “She is a musician and bard who I admire. And her restaurant is fantastic.”

“There is a boat at the docks that will get us there. I saw it earlier on our way in,” Lucy added brightly. Lucy continued to keep us heading the right direction regardless of my despair at once again not finding who we searched for.

“Phoenix Bites here I come!” I squared my shoulders and shouldered my backpack then nodded, “Let’s go.”

And we went.

Echoes From the Caverns

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06/10/2022 01:29 AM

Chapter Six. At Jade Island – All Aboard!

Read by Asclepius

Yesterday morning, back in Jade Valley while focusing on the driving need to catch up with Violet’s ship, Zyrina had eventually convinced herself to get on board this airship – she had persuaded herself that she could get in the air again. Even if it brought her to a cold sweat at the mere idea of leaving the safety of the earth, she was determined to overcome her dread. Airships didn’t crash every time, and when Lucy looked her in the eye and bet her farm that this one would not crash, Zyrina took a deep breath and accepted her ticket. She knew she would do whatever she needed to do to see this search to the end. She was counting on Lucy’s opinion of this bloody contraption and her love of her farm. She was still not sure it was a sound choice but there was also her promise to help her friend find Kitty. And then there was the book. She had not forgotten.

Finding Kitty, and then Torgin and Phlebus, was all absolutely essential because of the book they all sought. It had caused far too much damage in the world already and Zyrina would do far more to see it recovered than simply lose her breakfast over the edge of an airship. Her hope that Phlebus would find a way to safely keep or destroy it kept her steady. She knew he would not give up and she would not either. She knew what she had to do, and she was determined to do it.

It would be nice if it didn’t involve quite so much nausea though. Zyrina closed her eyes trying to stop the inner swells from swamping her. Glancing up from the rail, the big oval balloon billowing above did not dispense the same sense of comfort to her as most of the others felt. In fact, its undulating form was now a catalyst to the rippling inside her stomach. Zyrina leaned over the rail of the airship again.

Hanging on to the thick rope rigging with all her strength, she emptied the contents of her gut yet another time. Relief was immediate. Complete emptiness and freedom for a few precious minutes, until the waves of nausea would once again entirely swamp her existence; this short reprieve was all that kept her from flinging herself over the side too.

A fresh breeze on her face rejuvenated her failing spirit and she pulled herself from the brink. Back in their shared sleeping cabin, she carefully rinsed her mouth and washed her face before climbing into her cot after a large swig of the cool peppermint tea that Lucy had left in a pewter jug beside her bed. Zyrina suspected that Lucy was responsible for the hot water and clean towel, as well.

She smiled a little, thankful for her friend’s compassion. Lucy continued to bring her sense of serenity and comfort with her no matter where they wandered or how rough the accommodation and Zyrina was keenly aware of all the ways that Lucy smoothed the path for everyone in their small troupe.

Watching people was a specialty of Zyrina’s. She noticed things that other people were not aware of, like the way that Lily seemed to go completely still every time that Torgin’s name came up in conversation. Or the things that Lucy left behind her like a breadcrumb trail back to the beginning. Zyrina shifted in her bunk, pulling the rough blanket up under her chin.

*

Days into our journey I leaned far over the side and shouted gleefully into the wind: “WheeeeeeEEEEEeeee!” My hair whipped back from my face and the warm sun soaked right through my closed eyelids to shine bright orange patterns where they danced in my mind. I was having a moment of complete abandon. There was little I could accomplish while we travelled so as well as writing copious notes, I spent time exploring the ship.

The ride up to the large airship in the small air balloon from Jade Valley was the smoothest transfer I had experienced; at least I hadn’t screamed the entire time this time. After the air balloon docked and we climbed into the airship, the First Officer arranged for payment and transferred our belongings over to the ship too. This was all becoming familiar to me. However, the beauty of the long-range airship had not struck me before today. I think fear had made me blind to the splendor around me. I looked around deck at the graceful lines of polished wood and thick rope. This bigger air vessel gave me a strange sense of stability, and permanence.

These days Zyrina mostly stayed in her bunk; Lucy had made friends with the crew and was leading some sort of group on first-aid-on-a-sailing-vessel, and I apparently was not allowed very many places on board. The crew moved around me almost invisibly when they didn’t want my attention. If they did want my attention, they were very clear too, generally it was “Get off that” or “Miss you aren’t allowed up here” and my favorite “How did you manage to do that?”

However, I did make friends with someone. The engineer who was bemused by my interest and horror enjoyed some company none the less. Passengers didn’t often pay attention to the mechanics of the flight and he had a chance to talk about the machines he loved and the land we were traversing.

That was rare for him, though he was quite knowledgeable. He was a quick- witted fellow and didn’t mind talking about his work and especially about this airship which I think he never left. At all. He gave a few good lectures while we travelled north. I learned more about the geography of Novia and about the planets in the sky than I had in decades back home. Central Britanny was a glowing jewel in the night as we floated above it.

Novia was simply stunning from the sky. Even Zyrina had to admit the views were amazing (between puking sessions that is). I think both of us benefited from the discussion on safety measures in case something went wrong with the air heating device. The balloons that we used to get up to the air ships carried passengers back to the ground as well. I learned that the large airships rarely land but traverse the entirety of the world in the air above and were truly a sight to behold. If I could get over this dratted fear of heights this experience would be a far more pleasant one but even so, not letting in to fear was a useful thing to learn how to do and I was determined to overcome this one. It did give me a great deal of comfort when I found out there were air balloons that would be deployed if something went wrong. Though it wasn’t till after I was able to inspect one and know how to deploy It myself that I truly felt like I was flying and not just waiting to die.

*

Almost two weeks later we three weary travelers jumped down from the small air balloon that delivered us to the ground from the airship. After our luggage was heaved over the side and my feet landed on ground my knees buckled and I nearly fell over. I looked over at Lucy, who had been the first of us to stand and then manage to gather up her belongings. She was steady on her feet and already examining one of the weeds growing from the edge of the stone platform we landed on. As soon as I could stand without tilting from side to side, I gave a thank-you wave to the balloon pilot, who took off again almost immediately to catch back up with the ship as there were no passengers waiting to get onboard.

I was unsteady but assured myself that I just needed to regain my land legs. It had been an exceedingly long air trip from Jade Valley to Jade Island. It was one that Lucy and I both found exhilarating, though this was not so for all the members of our traveling party. I gave a sympathetic glance toward Zyrina who had fallen to her knees when we landed, and not yet risen. After covertly checking on my still-green friend, I gathered up my belongings and started looking around the dock a little.

Ahead of me and now staring into the harbour, Lucy wondered aloud, “Is that the Sea Byrd?”

I looked out into the bay, “Nope, that looks like a passenger ship.” I squinted into the sun to see the outline of the ship that Lucy was pointing out and said, “Violet’s ship is smaller, a galleon, and has a pirate flag.” I turned to look straight at Lucy, “Weren’t you just on board recently?”

Lucy nodded. “Maybe my eyes are worse than yours.” She shrugged. “I didn’t pay attention really, and I didn’t notice the flag colours.” She mused without thinking, “Do you think that her sea ship is faster than the air ship we took? Do you think they are docked here already?”

“Snails and anthills are faster travel than air ships,” mumbled Zyrina as she stared hard at a patch of dirt just in front of her. “That is the last time I fly!” she swore with vehemence.

Zyrina did NOT prefer air travel nor sea travel. She preferred walking or wagon or riding horses. She had been airsick or seasick almost the entire journey and was the most grateful person in Novia the moment her boots touched the soil again. She didn’t kneel down and thank the Titans out loud, but she definitely did that in her head while on her knees.

I sighed and confessed, “Rina, I won’t make you do it again. Promise. We’ll travel by land if we can from now on. Promise. Pinky Promise.”

Zyrina nodded once, mollified. It was all she could manage without nausea swelling up again. There was extraordinarily little that would make Zyrina continue to do something she didn’t want to do. It said a great deal about her feelings for us that she had even got into the air machine in the first place. It also indicated how serious the mission for recovering the book we sought. I thought to myself ‘this could get a lot worse than it’s been.’

I was scanning the horizon looking for my sister’s ship but, of course, I could not find it among the motley group of ships and tubs in the vicinity. Jade Island’s proximity to the large Kingsport harbour on the Hidden Vale made it an attractive spot to anchor the variety of not-quite-respectable ships that shared the shipping lanes with the bigger passenger ships, so there were quite a few to search.

Violet loved Jade Island and often came here to enjoy the company of the local craftsman at his beachside resort. She called him OZ and he was a fine craftsman of weapons and garments and, especially, of musical instruments. Years ago, he had crafted me a lovely harp that had the deep rich tone that I still preferred over all others. Over the years, I had gotten to know him as well. If he were entertained, you could hear his laugh from across the bay. He kept his shop near the beach. Violet traded with him regularly but that’s not where I was heading now. I looked carefully through the ships again, to be sure I hadn’t missed seeing my sister’s ship.

“Well, that’s it, we are going to have to find the Harbour Master”, I sounded tired but undefeated. “Because I can’t see her ship here anywhere. Maybe it’s moored farther away. She doesn’t generally put down an anchor at the main dock. Something about secrecy, privacy, or piracy, or something like that…”

Lucy chuckled at that comment.

I brightened up, “There are also a few surrounding smaller islands.” I looked around again. “She may be anchored at one of those. I don’t remember the last time I traveled here on her ship or where it was that we dropped the anchor. It was YEARS ago,” I added seeing the looks on my friends’ faces.

“I just hope the Sea Byrd is still here.” Lucy was munching on a piece of bread and cheese and mumbled her comment under her breath, hoping that no one heard her.

“We need to find Green’s Inch” Lucy reminded me.

“Oh, yeah that’s right” I nodded.

Zyrina gestured with a nod of her head behind them. There was a town crier standing chatting with someone on the pier nearby. She pulled herself to a standing position from her knees, brushed herself off, and didn’t lose her stomach contents. This was improvement. Picking up her backpack with a graceful arching move, she spoke over her shoulder, “If anyone knows, that town crier will be the one who does.” Her voice trailed behind her as she strode toward the crier.

We scrambled to gather our things and follow her over to our only real hope of finding Violet’s ship in this maze of islands and secret coves.

“Hello there, good sir,” she interrupted the pair on the pier, “can you tell us if a Captain Violet Green has registered a ship at the harbour here?” Lucy and I heard the tail end of Zyrina’s polite request as we stopped nearby.

“Um…let me see. Could it be registered under another name by any chance?” He made a pointed glance to his empty palm held surreptitiously by his side. Zyrina looked at me and raised her eyebrow. I fished in my purse and covertly offered him a few gold coins. He felt their weight then continued, “It could be listed under any of the crew members depending on who paid the docking fee.”

Stepping forward, I spoke up, “Try searching for Jenny Hawkins, or Aslinne Gradh, or Purser Scallywag, or Mr. Flint, or…” here I trailed off as the town crier had started nodding his head.

“Ah, here it is.” He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and turned to look toward the water, “Let’s see, if you go to the end of that pier, beside the Viking longboat you will find a small rowboat,” he pointed at the pier on the right as we faced the sea. “You can take that ferry out to Green’s Inch where Captain Violet likes to dock-”

“Aha!” Lucy clapped her hands together and startled the town crier.

He looked the three travel-worn women up and down, “-as long as you bring it back. Row out to the small island, just past the spit of land you see there.” He nodded out past the docks, past the resort on the beach, to a rocky jut of a peninsula with a few palm trees sprouting out of it like hair.” With this, he pocketed the gold that Lily had given and turned away from the travelers back to his companion on the dock.

“Now we are getting somewhere,” I spoke as I started moving toward the small rowboat. It looked a little unsteady, but we climbed in anyway and tucked our gear under the oilskin at our feet before we headed out to sea. Lucy took up the oars and began singing.

“Row, row, row your boat…”

There were several groans but, in the end, even Zyrina chimed in with her rich contralto. It helped pass the time too, and we soon spotted the outline of a ship in the distance.

“Yes!! It’s the Sea Byrd!” My excitement nearly overturned the boat as I jumped to my feet.

“Sit DOWN, you fool!” Lucy didn’t mince her words as she kept pulling on the oars and her strong, even strokes drew us closer and closer. I gave her an annoyed look but sat back down all the same. The ship did not look like it was planning on going anywhere, the anchor was down and there were no crew members immediately visible as they got close enough to make out the name of the ship on its bow spelled out in runes.

“Ahoy there, permission to come aboard?” I called out in a clear voice as we approached the private dock. Violet’s ship looked deserted to me, but I could see someone reading a book on the dock. It looked like Violet’s Purser, Scallywag.

Scallywag looked up from her well used dog-eared novel and scoffed. “Like you need permission to come on board your sister’s ship? Welcome, Lily. Who are your friends?” She looked the other two up and down then set her book down on the crate near the chair she had brought from the ship to sit on. It was hot and tiring when supplies were being loaded and boring when they weren’t, but the sturdy chair made the entire process of being purser far more pleasant for her old bones.

“Harriet Scallywag, meet Zyrina, and you have met Lucy Featherbright before.” I nodded to each woman as I introduced them, and they each ducked their heads in greeting.

“Hmm. Well, there is room now if you want passage. Earlier on this voyage, there was a full passenger list out of Mistrendur, but they have all found their ports. There was even a lynx on board and a mage who hired the private room, but he left the ship at…” she trailed off seeing all three of them go still and quiet.

“Etceter?”

“Kitty?”

“What?”

Bursting out all at once rendered us incomprehensible and loud but Harriet was used to drunken sailors talking and this was similar.

“That’s enough now. One by one. You first.” She pointed squarely at me. Having grasped that we were looking for the lynx. She nodded, “Yup, that big cat got off at the same place that Aslinne the cook debarked.”

“Was Kitty with Aslinne?”

“Etceter?”

“Then where?”

The next round of questions was harder for old Scallywag to ungarble. She glared at me. In the end the other women calmed down and let me do the talking, but I could feel their impatience.

“Harriet, do you know why the lynx left the ship?”

Harriet seemed relieved to only have one woman asking questions, “Yup, it jumped ship after Aslinne, and Jenny left, along with that mage. Can’t recall his name. In Etceter. That lynx looked like it was following them.” She added, “But none of them was going to Etceter. Leastwise I don’t think so.” Here she looked a little unsure.

“Do you know where they were going?” I pushed.

“Well, let’s see now,” Harriet scratched her forehead and tossed her grey hair out of her face. She was just warming up to her subject, “Cap’n Violet sent Aslinne to accompany Jenny to her parents’ Inn in Darkshire, the Bent Bow Inn I think it’s called.” She shook her head sadly, “Jenny has quit the sailing life and is going back to being a landlubber. I’ll miss that quick laugh of hers, but she had a heap of trouble on her first voyage and I think it made her skittish.” Harriet mused, then added with more gusto, “Then Aslinne is going fishing at some fancy fishing place before travelling north and stopping in at a restaurant in Ordanis Mortis, rumored to have the best phoenix bites anywhere. I think she’s trying to get the recipe. Then off to Stinging Tree Hollow to visit a friend of hers, some cook or another, there is some sort of fish recipe they are working on together. The cap’n is going to go meet Aslinne in Stinging Tree Hollow before coming here to meet up with us. Then we sail back to the Mistrendur. That mage was on his way somewhere in the desert beyond. He’s accompanying Aslinne and Jenny to Darkshire on his way wherever he is goin.” She then confided to Lily in a half-whisper “Our Aslinne is sweet on the mage but I never did catch his name. He was an odd fella alright. Not right in the head, I don’t think. Muttered to himself all the time but nary a word to another living soul ‘cept our Aslinne.” Here she nodded agreement with herself. “Din’t talk much, but at least he decided to travel with Aslinne and Jenny. There’s safety in numbers travelin’ through Novia by foot,” She nodded to herself. Harriet had heard tales of travel on land. She avoided touching land herself if she could manage it. “Never felt safe there, and that’s the truth.” She stared suspiciously toward the shore.

I looked toward my friends with a definite slump in my shoulders, “They aren’t here.” I was resigned.

“But Lily, we know where Aslinne is going to be. Kitty is bound to be near, or she will know where Kitty stopped following her at the very least. We just need to travel to the places she hasn’t reached yet,” Zyrina reminded me. “Stinging Tree Hollow, then to Ordanis Mortis, and Darkshire Hills. We will find her if we work our way south. We are bound to come across her either on the road along the way or at one of the locations that Scallywag just gave us. It sounds like Aslinne must be aware of Kitty following her and knows something about Kitty, too, or at least Kitty is following her. Stinging Tree Hollow is not far from where we are now.” Zyrina turned back to Scallywag, “Can you tell us any more about the mage?”

Here Lucy and I both perked up to listen again.

“Well, let’s see.” Harriet seemed to ponder thoughtfully for a short time, “He weren’t a talker. That’s for sure. He was on board since Mistrendur an’ I think t’only person he even spoke wit was our Aslinne. She nursed him back to health during the voyage y’know? Dat can bond a pair sure as the surf. He’s a landlubber. No sea legs on him even after all that time on the ocean.” She shook her head, “More came outta him than went in, I never seen the beat of it afore.”

I looked over to Zyrina who shuddered in sympathy, having intimate knowledge of the process of that Scallywag described.

She went on, “Then dere was dat big white cat, Kitty you call it? Well, Kitty kept a close watch on dat mage on da ship for the whole voyage, then it leaped off the deck at Etceter with the others. Most of us gave both of them a wide berth. Kitty kept the rat population down on the ship, though, and Aslinne surely was thankful for that. I think she gave it extra rations when no one was looking. Not sure why the cat was so fascinated by dat mage. He weren’t good at the magic, that’s certain.” Here she rolled up here sleeve to show a healing spell he put on a wound that Scallywag had gotten while climbing in the rigging a week past. It was slowly healing but her skin was discoloured and bent the wrong way somehow, and it looked a little swollen around the edges.

Lucy gasped, then stepped forward and quickly took Harriet’s arm in her two strong hands and with a swiftly-spoken healing spell, “Asen-Reno,” she soon mended Harriet’s botched wound. The relief in Harriet’s face was immediate. Lucy did such a good job that Harriet could not now even tell she had ever been damaged.

“Why, thank you Miss Lucy. You have some mighty powerful magic there. Dat there is a gift from the Titans. Mark my words.” Then she went on but appeared almost lost in memories, “I wish that mage was as competent. He messed up most of the spells he tried and one night we even had to put out a fire in his room. Then there was the main sail fire. Gadzooks, that was a night alright,” she grimaced a little and nervously laughed. “Fire on a ship is ‘bout the worse mistake you can make out on the ocean and not somethin’ sailors get over. Fool mage. Tried some magic spell out of that little book he carried. There was some nasty screeching sounds and it felt like the world was being ripped apart.” She shrugged, “but what’er it was it din’t take and sparks flew every which way. Jenny said that there was spider silk all over the mages room when she went in to swab it and change his bedding the next day. It was a mess to clean up, sticky and strong webbing too. That’s about all I know. You can try asking Old John Sliver, the cook’s assistant we picked up somewhere in the Mistrendur. He took over cookin’ while our Aslinne is on shore leave. All I can say about that is I sure feel the loss of Miss Aslinne’s cookin’ and I look forward to her coming back and makin’ fish stew again.” With this she trailed off while staring into the water below the dock.

Zyrina sighed. “Thank you kindly for all the information. Where is Old John Sliver?”

“He’s on board somewhere. Try the galley?” She waved them away and went back to reading the novel in her lap. I thanked Scallywag and we headed to the ladder on the dock.

Lucy led the way up the Jacob’s Ladder and jumped lightly into the ship. There was no one about. Rina and I were close behind her and we fanned out, searching for the cook. Lucy found him in the belly of the ship swabbing the floor and called out to Zyrina and me to come down.

I jumped down the ladder and was met by the enormous solid form of a giant man. “A-Ahoy,” I stammered, looking at the massive girth of the cook. “I’m Lily Byrd, Captain Violet Green’s sister.”

Old John Sliver looked furtively around and saw no escape. “I didn’t take em.” He blurted then added, “I’m called Salty John around here.”

‘Take what?” I inquired innocently.

“Why Salty John?” Lucy added.

“Oh, well. Never mind then.” The cook looked relieved then nodded toward Lucy, “It’s on account of the accident I had with a block of salt and the fish soup on the first day I took over cook’s spot, Miss.”

I exchanged meaningful looks with Zyrina.

I went on, “My friends and I are looking for a snowy lynx, the one that was onboard until Etceter, and any information you have about the mage who booked the guest cabin. Can you help us?”

“Mage, huh?” The cook tried to look nonchalant. “There was a mage on board?”

“You better start at the beginning.” Zyrina encouraged, stepping forward with her bow notched, and steel in her liquid brown eyes. “What didn’t you take?”

Instinctively backing up a step, the cook didn’t waste a minute and in his extensive rambling we found out some interesting bits tucked into the myriad of ship’s gossip. We learned there were several dragon eggs onboard in a secret room. They belonged to the captain. Two went missing in Ardoris and the cook was worried that someone would think he had taken them.

He swore he didn’t, “I was just dusting them when I noticed some missing”. Or so he claimed.

I narrowed my eyes and said in a quiet voice “How did you know some were missing if you hadn’t found them before you were ‘dusting’?”

“There were two missing.” His big brown eyes blinked quickly but he could not look less innocent as he went on, “I looked all around the ship. They’re nowhere.” He sounded guilty, “You can tell Cap’n Violet it wasn’t me.” Here he narrowed his eyes, “I bet it was that mage.”

“Why do you say that?” I wanted to know, already half sure the cook had the dragon egg hidden somewhere.

“Well, he was a sneaky fella, that scurvy dog. Poking his nose every which way. Always with that book o’ his. Never managed a proper spell the whole time he was here and set fire to his room to boot.” Stroking his chin, he went on, “He had plenty of time to steal em and hide em in his baggage before he left the ship.”

“Sneaky?”

“Yup, I spied him looking through the captain’s desk, and another thing: he just didn’t seem to be much like anyone else. He didn’t mix with anyone on the ship except the cook who hired me on, Aslinne Gradh. Somehow, he got in her good books and they spent a lot of time on the aft deck whispering to each other. Aslinne was sunk, spent all her time sighing and staring into space. When she and Jenny left the ship, the mage tagged along with them. It didn’t seem right somehow but who am I to know?” He shrugged. “Just as long as you all know it weren’t me what stole those eggs, savvy?”

Missing dragon’s eggs and a mage with a magic book? It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. This had become instantly far more interesting to Zyrina. And Lucy. And me.

“Thank you, John. When did you notice the eggs were gone?” I asked politely.

Cookie John shifted his eyes from side to side as he answered, “Oh, that would be some time after we docked at Ardoris because when we docked here at Green’s Inch is when I discovered it gone. After the Cap’n went off to find them black oysters that is. I didn’t mean to find the secret storage room but since Jenny were talking about it, and what might be inside, I decided that I’d look for it when I was swabbing the sleeping quarters.” He looked furtively toward the rear end of the crew quarters.

I knew where the secret room was located but didn’t want to go snooping in my sister’s private treasures just then. Besides, I didn’t know what was supposed to be in there, but I would tell Scallywag before we left about Salty John’s tale.

I asked, “Do you know where the mage is now?”

He shrugged, “Nope. He hopped ashore at Etceter with Aslinne and Jenny and good riddance. He was never healthy and caught the ship on fire more than once.”

He grunted, “They were planning on taking the road up to Darkshire Hills as far as I know. Aslinne took Jenny home, then she was ordered to take some shore leave and said she’d go to Stinging Tree Hollow on her way back. We are here in dock until she makes her way up here before we head back on our route. No one expects her to arrive for a fortnight. Did you see her anywhere in your travels?”

“No. but we are looking for a snowy lynx named Kitty.” Lucy was not going to give anything much away to this greasy bear of a man. He didn’t seem all that trustworthy to her. She stood directly in front of him and crossed her arms in front of her chest while she asked, “Do you know where the snowy lynx is?”

Old Salty John took a step back, then gave a quizzical look, almost whispering while he answered Lucy, “That was another strange thing. That cat rarely took its eyes off of that mage. That cat sneaked off the ship just after Aslinne, Jenny, and the mage debarked at Etceter. I think it’s tracking the mage from what I can tell.” He seemed relieved.

I nodded to the other two and we all thanked the cook politely and left him leaning on his mop beside a pail while we climbed the ladder back to the galley. In the kitchen at the captain’s table, we huddled together to drink the tea and try the cakes that Salty John put there for tea. They did not look fresh. It was time to make a new plan. But first the food. Lucy dug right in and soon had a heaping platter of cakes and cookies and pies in front of her and I wasn’t far behind. There were lemon buns. Irresistible ones. Rina took a cup of tea but avoided the sweets. I didn’t notice really because she rarely ate dessert.

Lucy summed up as her hand hovered over the tray of squares again, “So this fellow keeps showing up in all the places we are interested in, it looks like Kitty is intent on following him, and Aslinne is googly eyed over him. Right? I’m getting more and more interested in him and in his little book. ‘Rina, do you think it’s THAT book?” She turned to see Zyrina’s neutral expression. “And what about these missing dragon eggs? You don’t think he’s going to try to control another dragon?”

Zyrina paled and then frowned before answering, “Phlebus would know for sure but it’s sure starting to look like it might be. I wonder what clue Torgin has followed. Right now, I think we need to go take a look and see if we can find Aslinne. We need to learn more about this mage.” Zyrina seemed sure.

I agreed. Lucy simply gathered up their snack and put it all away in her picnic basket, ready to travel again. Her smile told the world that all was right again since her belly was full. Nothing seemed to interfere with her good mood even though we had travelled the length of the land and still hadn’t found Kitty.

“I’m just going to take a quick look around the room that mage was using before we leave,” I shouted over the sound of the wind, “I’ll catch up in a minute. Meet you at the rowboat?” ‘Rina nodded as she climbed down to the dock after Lucy.

First, I climbed the ladder to my sister’s private rooms. I left my quickly scribbled paper on her desk where she would find it. Scallywag had told me she was out looking for oysters along the shore somewhere, but I didn’t really have time to go try to find her.

Dear Vi,

I can’t stay and wait for you, but I wanted to let you know I had been here. I finally caught up with your ship after a very long airship ride all the way north through Novia with Zyrina and Lucy. Remember them? It was magnificent!

We are searching for Lucy’s cat, and have gotten the message that Kitty left your ship at Etceter. We are heading out to try to find Aslinne. Maybe she knows where Kitty has gone.

Scallywag says you are off looking for pearls somewhere nearby, but I don’t have time to try to find you. I’ll catch you up with this latest adventure when you come back through Jade Valley. I know you will be back for the annual family gathering up at the keep; I’ll be sure to keep the light on for you.

Don’t be late,

Love, Lil

PS The Sea Byrd looks amazing! That new varnish is the perfect shade, just like you thought it would be.

PPS John Sliver snuck in your treasury; he knows two dragon’s eggs are missing. I don’t trust him.

With that done, I headed back down the ladder and over to the fancy guest room. This was the room I usually got to use when I sailed with my sister and I knew it well. It was left in a semi-tidy condition, but I wouldn’t trust that the bedding was fresh. I always brought my own when I sailed on the Sea Byrd. I gave it a quick sniff to confirm. Yes, I was correct. I shook my head to clear it and started rifling through the small desk in the room. There was a little mess left in the cabin and no one else had booked the room after the mage (I checked with Scallywag on that) but he had left not a lot behind. No one had bothered to clean it up yet because there wasn’t a booking. Why clean an empty room? Although I could see some logic in that I was mostly only glad no one had touched anything in there. Spider webbing was still evident in the room and there were several papers beside the bed. Also, some kind of strangely coloured charcoal in the bottom of the waste bin in the corner of the room with charred papers. So, here I was going through the garbage on my sister’s ship, again. I did also look under the mattress and under the bed and all the usual hiding places. Nothing there. I had to giggle a little: nerves, I think, but at last I did find some interesting bits of crumpled paper in the small desk in his room.

One of them was an advertisement for the Pickled Spinster Bed and Breakfast in Stinging Tree Hollow. Someone had underlined the name several times and put stars in the margins around it. Now why would the mage be going to Stinging Tree Hollow? If Aslinne was going there, and the mage then obviously that was absolutely our next stop. Rina had guessed right.

I had a friend with a bakery in that town, maybe she would have heard something about these mages and miscreants who moved far too secretly around Novia. There was also one for a restaurant in a town called Ordanis Mortis and it had the same underlining and little stars all around it: Los Gardeñias Restaurant and the name Nestor doodled a few times in the margin. The last advertisement had Darkshire scrawled across the top in big square runes. Hawkins, Bent Bow Inn written on it in the same runic language. And at the bottom with a question mark after it in everyday Novian: Southern Red Branch: Nestor. Just a name. Well, most of this wasn’t news since I already knew that Aslinne had been heading for Darkshire. Though Nestor had no meaning for me, I did wonder who that was. Was it the mage’s name? Then I found a piece of paper that had been torn into pieces. It took me a few seconds to discover that there were six pieces of paper and that I could piece them back together. I carefully laid out the pieces in order and read:

To the nameless Mage H of the Southern Red Branch that I met in Laketown at the dock;

Soon after you left, there was a few men in black asking after you. Three of them. I heard them talking about meeting with Nestor and Nestor not happy that they had not found you yet. I didn’t tell ‘em where you was going though. They seemed none too friendly.

There were three women who sounded interested in you too, but they was looking for a cat. That about covers the gold you paid me to keep you informed. We is even now, and my debt paid in full, too.

Thanks for doing business,

Finn Beanna

“That conniving scamp!” I exclaimed. How Finn managed to get a letter to the mage before he left the ship at Etceter boggled my mind. It certainly arrived before we did. Then I realized why Finn had been so nervous around us and unwilling to be found in the first place; he’d been questioned before we arrived in Ironhall. I had to tell the others. No wonder Lucy didn’t trust him. He was double-dealing. I guess business is business, but I sure could not stomach the idea of Finn passing along information about any of my friends or me. Gathering up these pamphlets and scraps of paper, I took another look around the room and, as nothing else had any special markings that I could see, I didn’t bother taking anything more.

Showing Zyrina and Lucy when I joined them, Zyrina narrowed her eyes and nodded somberly, “Stinging Hollow’s not even a day’s ride from Kingsport. We can stop there for a rest and a look around.” She pointed at the pamphlet for the Pickled Spinster laid on my lap. After thinking for a minute, she added, “I think Ordanis Mortis is further south in Novia, south of Central Britanny. We will go there after Stinging Tree Hollow if we don’t find Aslinne tomorrow. That’s the restaurant that Lily was telling you about yesterday, Lucy.”

“Oh?” Lucy nodded looking more interested.

“And I know a pretty amazing baker who lives in Stinging Tree Hollow, too.” I threw in, hoping to entice Lucy to want to carry on past Kingsport today. “She is one of the best fighters I’ve had the pleasure to go adventuring with, but …” I paused looking at my friends, “…maybe those are stories for a different afternoon.”

“Oh, good, a baker and an adventurer?” Lucy joined in after coming closer. “I’m hungry.” She gracefully stepped her large form into the rowboat and had herself settled without even causing a ripple in the water.

I watched her pick up the oars and place them in the locks with such ease and familiarity that I wondered where and when she had learned to be so comfortable on the water in such a small vessel but could see from the look on her face that she was not interested in my questions even a little bit. “Come on, I don’t want to wait till we get all the way to Ordanis Mortis before we eat, either. Let’s go. Singing Hollow, you say?”

I stuck all the papers into my belongings and gently began to nudge my way into the rowboat, “No, STINGING TREE Hollow.”

“It’s because of the kind of nettles around that town. They have barbs and once they puncture your skin, they release something that burns to the very core of your body. We DON’T want to get stung there.” Zyrina rubbed her shins in memory as she spoke.

After Lucy’s harsh words last time I rocked the boat, I wasn’t about to do it again. And almost succeeded. We didn’t tip over, at least. With that, we left the Sea Byrd, rowed back to Jade Island’s main dock in the rickety rowboat (this time loudly singing dirty sea shanties all the way back) then took the ferry from Jade Island to the dock in Kingsport. In the end it was too late in the day to continue to Stinging Tree Hollow and we found lodgings for the night in the port city.

Early the next morning from the old city, we made our way on the south route staying east of the Ravenswood Forests; none of us wanted to tangle with the Shadow Wood. By the time we had reached Stinging Tree Hollow, all three of us were ready to collapse.

I pointed to the sign ahead. Stinging Tree Hollow, it said. Ye Olde Pickled Spinster, it said.

“I don’t know much about Ye Olde Pickled Spinster, though I’ve stayed there a few times on my way through this part of the Hidden Vale in the past,” and I showed them the pamphlet again. “Let’s keep our wits about us while we go in. Ask if they have seen any mages around town.”

“Yeah, that sounds like something we can do. Walk into a strange Inn and demand to know if there are mages of questionable virtue about the place? That doesn’t sound sane.” Zyrina had another idea. “Let’s just stick to some general sort of questions, nothing too specific. See if anyone knows more than they should.”

“How will we know if they know what they shouldn’t know?” Lucy was in earnest, but tension had gotten the best of me. I admit I started giggling then and couldn’t stop.

“Yup, it’s time for a break,” Zyrina agreed, rolling her eyes, and laughing.

Lucy just nodded her tired head and turned to go down the trail toward town without a further word; she too was done for and didn’t much like being laughed at just then. I followed her down the trail, still giggling over the silliness.

Echoes From the Caverns

The post The Stone Dragon Series – Book 2, Chapter 6 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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05/27/2022 02:37 AM

Read by Asclepius

Chapter Five. Missed Meetings.

“EEEEEEEEeeeeeEEEEE” With a squeal of delight Jenny Hawkins’s emerald eyes gleamed out the tiniest slits of her freckled eyelids. She squinted through the early-morning sunshine toward the dock below.

Earlier, with a whoop of delight, she had leapt from her small roughly-hewn bunk in the belly of the Sea Byrd and now stood steady beside the worn wood rail of the ship, her grip tight on the ropes above her. The ship had arrived in Jade Valley only a couple days ago. Without leaning over too far, Jenny could see how much of the cargo and baggage remained before they set sail. It looked as if they would be leaving today! Finally! She was getting off the ship at Etcetera, the next port of call, and going back home. It had been years since she left, and she now ached for the familiarity of her family home.

Catching a glint of sun off the shine of gold from the dock, Jenny observed their passenger dressed in dark flowing robes give a coin to a lad that immediately skipped off toward the village with a small envelope. The mage stood in the shadow of the ship. He seemed pale and unsteady on his feet even on the dock but not as sick as he was when he arrived.

Jenny knew he was staying in the fancy berth on the main deck. She had been trying to get a glimpse at him all the way from Laketown, where he stumbled back onto the wharf and tossed a hefty pouch of coins to the captain. Jenny knew the captain needed the gold and that’s why he was allowed back on board after the damage he did on the way there from the Mistrendur. She knew how badly the ship had been battered just trying to get to Ironhall let alone the damage on the way here from there and, sure enough, he was given continued passage after the repairs; even if it was his terrible mistake during a magic spell that caught the main sail on fire in the first place.

She hadn’t seen him out of his berth since Ironhall, but it didn’t take long for him to look straight up at her now, his gaze piercing and searching. She stepped back from the rail and out of sight just as she could feel the swell of the tide lift the ship a little. Even moored, the ship reacted to the constant movement of the ocean below and so creaked and groaned as it rolled with the incoming tide. And after years of practice, Jenny instinctively moved naturally and gracefully without thought back into the shadows, hidden…and breathed. He was INTENSE. Maybe it was alright that she hadn’t seen him before this after all.

She’d seen mages during her travels but this one did not seem kind or friendly like the others had been. She had learned intricate beautiful music from the elven mages she had encountered in her travels. The music was moving and haunting, too. The human one she had met had shown her some small magic tricks to entertain her friends…but this mage gave her a creepy feeling all up her spine and she was pretty sure he didn’t play any music at all or know any party tricks either.

She didn’t understand why her friend Aslinne, the ship’s cook, looked all glassy-eyed when he was mentioned in their whispers at the end of the day. In the evenings when the young women sat together at the rough-hewn table below deck and discussed life aboard the ship, he was one of the subjects that Aslinne would not talk about. Aslinne was the repository of the gossip on the ship and Jenny was the only one that Aslinne would tell anything about her own feelings and experiences but she never ever would talk about either the mage or what any of the others told her. Jenny wished she would.

There were gossips to be had in the kitchen if one were a fly on the wall. That little galley heard many a whispered secret between sailor and cook. She made it a point of honor to know all the comings and goings of her shipmates and Jenny was constantly trying to get Aslinne to share what she’d learned. Aslinne rarely did…which is probably why the ship’s crew continued to go to her with their woes. Even with all her moon eyes over the mage, Aslinne had not even revealed that mage was tattooed. Now Jenny wondered why not.

*

In another shadowy corner of the main deck, Kitty rested undisturbed by any onboard the Sea Byrd. From her seat at the captain’s table, Captain Violet Green eyeballed Kitty asleep while she herself sipped a hot drink of tea and nibbled the scone and cheese that was her breakfast. Kitty lay curled inside a coil of rope with the sun dappled golden on her snowy fur. It rippled occasionally, dislodging some unseen flying pest. Still, no one would dare approach. (Perhaps that’s why the rope was unused.) The feline had been watching the doors to the passenger berth across the main deck. Kitty flicked her ears when Jenny came bounding by but then yawned and seemingly ignored the little human. Kitty stared at the berth door for a time more before adjusting her fur, curling around herself, and again closing her eyes. Violet was glad she had thought to send a note up to Jade Mountain where Lucy took her wagon after disembarking. Next time she was up that way, Kitty would be taken back to Lucy.

Its presence on her ship surprised Violet a little but she had no reason to try to change Kitty’s mind about anything. Violet wasn’t sure why Kitty was now travelling solo but felt sure that Lucy and Torgin would have a tale about it the next time she ran into either of them in one of the pubs along her travels. There was no need to interfere in matters that didn’t concern her, and this was no different. She sipped her hot tea.

There was plenty of fish for Kitty to eat and she’d kept the vermin population under control on the ship since her arrival and that was going to be all the compensation that Captain Green would receive from the feline. It made her smile, thinking about delivering an invoice to Torgin for Kitty’s passage. Violet was fond of Kitty from previous adventures she had shared with Torgin and Lucy. Now she grinned into her teacup and blushed. Torgin was someone that even Captain Violet had a liking for and that wasn’t common for her at all. However, Lily had that faraway look in her eye anytime that Torgin’s name came up in conversation and Violet would rather die than interfere with the crush her sister had on him. She stayed well away.

Captain Violet had laughed when her cabin-girl, Jenny Hawkins, burst up from below and scurried out the galley onto the deck to peer over the port side of the ship. Jenny reminded Violet of her younger, exuberant self before the woes that sealed her life to this ship had taken the lightness from her step. Before organizing her crew for the morning, Violet went back to the task at hand and buttered another of Aslinne Gradh’s fine scones. She piled her plate full and, with one hand, headed for the ladder to her office.

She had barely bitten into the delightful pastry when again she heard Jenny skip back through the kitchen and bounced back down the crew ladder, her short red curls quivering as she moved.

“Jenny, a moment.” Violet’s voice wasn’t loud, but Jenny heard her and stopped short.

“Yes, Cap’n?”

“When we call through the Etceter we’ll not be docking at port. You and the others will be rowed ashore in the skiff. I want you to take time now and well prepare your belongings for leaving our crew. Don’t forget anything! I went you ready, and in the skiff first, when we row ashore. Let’s not hold up the paying passengers! When you are done packing, go to the poop deck and clean up the mess you left there from trimming the lemon trees. Understood?” Violet tried to look stern.

With a flash of a grin Jenny answered with gusto, “Yes, Cap’n right away ma’am!” With that she turned and continued to bounce her way to the lower deck.

Shouts and thumps could be heard on the dock from the open portholes and several seabirds squawked too. Seabirds usually were around when there were barrels of fish to load. It didn’t help that several of the crew would toss the birds a fish now and then and laugh at the scrum as birds competed for the salty treats. The argument was escalating and with a sigh, she rose took one last bite and headed for the sound of shouting on the dock. This would need some sorting…

*

Below deck, dock sounds were easily ignored by the slight red-headed girl perched on her bunk as she once again repacked her belongings. She intended to be ready to disembark the moment they went ashore for the land journey to Darkshire Hills and the Benbow Inn. She was glad to have the company of Aslinne for the last bit of journey overland to her home in the mountains.

Returning to the task at hand she looked over her loot. The most important of her belongings were gifts for her parents and brothers back home. She ran her fingers over the small wooden toy in her lap. Little Jimmy, barely ten years old, was going to go mad for this little working catapult she had found in the markets of Central Brittany near the Wharf and his flamboyant twin Jeremy would get the pirate hat with an exotic-coloured feather sticking out of it that had been given to Jenny to wear during her time at sea.

Frowning a little, she gazed at the hat beside her on the bed and dramatically reaffirmed under her breath that she never wanted to wear it again or set foot on another ship once she got back home. Jenny had had plenty of adventure and now her budding musical talents might just earn her a living without going back to sea. The seed of hope was something to hold on to and cherish while this last part of her journey home unfolded. Inside the silky little bag was the silky embroidered cloth that Elves visiting from Vertas had traded her when she had been on a fishing excursion in Jaanaford for the fine rare fishes she had caught that day. Jenny smoothed its wine-red silken texture before setting it back inside the smaller bag. It was for her mother. Her favorite gift was for her father though. She turned to the chest at the end of her bunk. Inside was an old tapestry rolled around a carefully preserved telescope, one that Captain Violet herself had given to Jenny for her quick thinking in the hair-raising adventures Jenny had lived through.

This passion for the sky was something her dad and she had had in common: of the sky and of the sea. Jenny was letting go of her vision of being a sailor in favor of going home and taking up the lute and storytelling, but she still found herself drawn to the stars, even if the sea had defeated her dreams there. She now dreamed they would have many fine evenings staring at stars and planets but, for now, after carefully shutting the lid to the chest and replacing the backpack under her bunk, she grinned happily and plunked the black tricorn hat firmly back on her head. She bent to pick up a pail and grasped the worn wooden handle of a mop and skipped out to clean up the mess she made earlier.

*

“La laa, la laa, la laa, la laa, la-la la-la laaaa, lee la!”

Back on board after sorting out the sailors on the docks, Captain Violet could hear the young cabin-girl humming an old earth ode about joy as she enthusiastically mopped the poop deck at the back of the ship. Looking up and through her window, Violet could see Jenny dancing with the mop across the ships deck. Violet smiled absently and went back to plotting the ship’s course through the Twins and into the Bay of Storms to Etceter.

“Get out of my way!” She heard the mage order one of her crew to move the heavy crate that had just been raised over the side.

Their passenger, picked up unexpectedly way up in the north, also wanted to be let off at the dock in Etceter before Violet’s ship carried on to the Hidden Vale. Captain Violet believed he would be traveling by wagon from there. Some ruins or something. She could not remember the name. He paid in gold and didn’t give out any other details of his travels. Violet shivered, glad that he kept to himself and relieved he was disembarking soon.

He wasn’t pleasant to spend time with. He was seasick most of the time and when not sick, generally causing trouble with failed magic, including that fire. He did not converse easily or at all, actually. She would be glad to be rid of him but his fare, paid in a pile of Crowns of the Obsidians, was needed for refurbishing and repairs on the Sea Byrd and she had no qualms about taking on unsavory passengers as long as they followed her rules on board her ship. And paid their bills. There was always the plank if they didn’t.

At the same time, Violet had also persuaded Aslinne Gradh (with the promise of a fishing holiday included) to escort Jenny Hawkins back to her parents in Darkshire and so they would be travelling east from Etceter at the same time as the mage. She would miss Aslinne, but she could not spare anyone else: Aslinne was due some leave already, and it was time for Jenny to return home. She grimaced a little; good cooks were scarce, and she would welcome Aslinne’s return to the ship in the future. Although she was a little concerned about the young Jenny travelling through the land, Violet had seen the training that Aslinne did with knives late at night when she thought no one was watching. She was graceful. Silent. Deadly. Even though Aslinne had arranged to travel with that unsettling mage to Darkshire Hills, Violet smiled, knowing that Aslinne would make sure they arrived safely, and that Jenny would soon be back with her family. For a cook, Aslinne had some mighty peculiar talents all right. Useful ones, at that.

“Jenny!!! Stop dawdling!” Aslinne Gradh could scream like a fishwife when she wanted to be heard above the cacophony of the ship loading. “Get down to the kitchen when you finish those trees, I need help with the dishes and the potatoes aren’t peeling themselves now are they?”

Violet’s crew were well-trained and willing to follow her right into a storm at sea. Most of them had been with her since she limped the Sea Byrd to port, the lone survivor of a brutal attack at sea on her wedding day. She hired them right off the dock the same day. They took years to train to her ways and she had made sailors out of the unlikeliest of people. Even with all this experience in training sailors, Violet was absolutely certain that Jenny was not suited to ship life.

“Yes Ma’am, I’ll be right there.” Floated back on the wind from the far end of the ship.

Jenny was a hard worker and sweet-tempered, but she was also a voracious gossip and knew where EVERYONE on board kept their treasures, what their secrets were, where they were from, and where they were going, and she didn’t have much sense about when to talk and when to keep quiet about what she knew. Loose lips sink ships, and Jenny’s indiscretions were an example of the damage that gossip can do on a small community. It had caused several fistfights onboard already this season and Violet was of two minds; pleasant as it was to have a cabin-girly who wanted to work hard, and enjoyable as it was to relive her own youthful exuberance through the girl’s eyes, the order on her ship was far more important than a little comfort.

“Humpf,” Violet sniffed into her teacup.

Jenny sang too much for another thing; it made the other sailors nervous. Somehow, Aslinne playing her recorder or humming to herself in the galley didn’t have the same effect and Violet herself had joined the crew in the evenings to hear the songs Aslinne would make up about the adventures they all shared aboard the Sea Byrd.

Aslinne Gradh was worth her weight in gold as far as Violet was concerned; she was a talented, friendly cook who put people at ease right away. Even their grumpy passenger seemed to warm to her, and they spent quite a bit of time onboard in his suite playing games when the mage wasn’t tossing his cookies overboard.

She had also observed them whispering away for hours at a time in the kitchen. That reminded her to check the references of John Sliver, the cook’s apprentice, newly hired on to fill in while Aslinne was away on her journey with Jenny. That name was somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t place it for the life of her.

“Sliver, John Sliver…why is that so familiar…,” she muttered to herself while she put her quill into its holder. Violet rose from her desk to stretch her stiff back and tired neck before heading into the village to get the last-minute supplies she wanted, and to say goodbye to her sister Lily if she was in town. Lily would be glad to hear that Jenny was on her way home finally. It was a promise that Violet had made to Lily last year sometime before Jenny convinced Violet to let her stay on for a season’s voyage around Novia.

Captain Violet watched as the mage eventually climbed back up the ladder. Kitty watched too.

Once again back inside his quarters on the main deck, the mage still felt even the tiniest sway in the constant movement around him. His lips curled awkwardly in a grimace of a grin, as if they were as unused to the movement as his body was unused to the movement of seawater. Over the arm of his chair, he heaved into the stinking bucket yet again then reached out and patted the roomy and bulging bag beside him. Its presence comforted him.

“Soon I’ll be off this wretched boat and I can properly cast a spell.” Through the rich blue fabric of the bag, he fingered the solid edge of the little magic tome inside. It thrummed warmly and he itched to take it out and look through the ancient spells again.

“Soon.” He whispered to his book. “Soon.” Patience was not this mage’s name and he was having difficulty holding his curiosity in check. The grim smile on his face didn’t match the crazed look in his eye and a casual observer might even believe he wasn’t quite as benign as he wanted to appear.

He was soon done this last cursed sea voyage. A slash of a smile broke across his pale sweating face again. Etceter was the next stop: the one he was waiting for. After his business in Owls Nest, Spindleskog, at Skrekk, and then this trip from Mistrendur through Ironhall, then Jade Valley, and now over to Etceter, was more sea travel than he ever wanted to do again. He wanted, he wanted…well, he couldn’t think about that right now. Bile rose and he turned to heave again. This voyage had not been easy on his body and the dry bread, fresh water, and ale that Aslinne the cook had left for him on the little table was still untouched and unwanted.

Everyone heard the watchman call out, “One hour till departure.”

Then the loud voice from the crew master: “Passengers, please stay in your cabins until further notice. Tides up! Get a move on, ladies. We’ve got a ship to launch!”

This was welcome news to the mage, and he moved to his bunk and soon laid his head back down.

Lucy, Zyrina, and I could see the sails of the Sea Byrd leaving port just as we landed in Jade Valley. We ran to the edge of the bridge and shouted to the crew on the deck, but no one heard our words, and our wildly gesticulating movements were not understood onboard. Several of the crew returned a friendly wave to us before turning back to their tasks at hand.

“Well, drat.” I looked glumly after the ship disappearing into the blue of sea and sky. “Now what?”

“Remember what Finn said about the shipping schedules on the bulletin board? Plus, we know where she is heading in the end: Jade Island.” Lucy started walking toward the bulletin board closest to the Stone Bridge of Happy Arrival where the balloon had landed nearby.

Sure enough. Lucy spotted the shipping schedule right away. “We are in luck. It’s due next in Etceter, then Ardoris along the Perennial Coast, and then to Jade Island off the Hidden Vale.” She looked at her friends. “Since they are going around Novia, we are going to go straight north. If we don’t catch up at Etceter then we should get to Jade Island at about the same time. IF we travel by airship.”

“Oh, no,” Zyrina shook her head, “not again…”

“Yooo-hooo, balloon pilot!!! We need your services,” I called out to the balloonist. “Take us to the air ship that travels to Jade Island and don’t hold back on the speed!”

Echoes From the Caverns

The post The Stone Dragon Series – Book 2, Chapter 5 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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05/25/2022 07:10 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 102 goes live May 26th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 102 (R102), we offer expanded character customization!

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

New Character Customization Options

Make Your Mark!

A basic set of face and body markings (tattoos, scars, freckles, etc.) has been added to character creation, with a greatly expanded set (including new hair colors) available at the New You Salons in Central Britanny (uphill northwest from the docks, on the left before the fountain) and Ardoris (behind the magic shop at the docks).

When previewing markings, be sure to spin yourself around! Many options have components on upper and lower torso, upper and lower arms, back, or sides and back of head that may be hidden by some hairstyles. You’ll now be shown without clothing in the mirror, so body art will be clearly visible. Placement and coloring for each are fixed.

A random button was also recently added to the character design interface, which can produce some startling results with the new options available!

There is also a new “Load” button in the interface: when you finish creating or modifying a character, the settings you chose will be exported to a text file on your computer that can be imported when you return to New You, whether with the same character or another, if you wish to match customizations exactly across multiple characters. Only the basic appearance and morph features from character creation can be reloaded this way, not options exclusive to the New You Salons.

(As always, if you pay to enter New You and leave by canceling and discarding your changes instead of finishing, the salon manager will remember that you have a credit and allow you to re-enter without additional payment.)

Face in New You mirror with purple hair and face and body tattoos

Release 102 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 102 (R102) in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R102 is a polish, improvements, and bug fixes month. Content, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R103 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 102!

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

An Altar Lockbox recipe will be added to North Paladis deco merchants in a patch soon after release.
Fixed issue with mini greyhound deco pet. SOTA-68886
Fixed incorrect name on saber-toothed tiger carcass. SOTA-70412
Set Dread Artifacts to use normal repair kits. SOTA-70402
Removed dye slots from Flaming Skull Mask. SOTA-70421
Removed dye slots from Ancient Xenossian Winged Plate Helm. SOTA-70420
Cloth tunic should now show correct skin color at bottom of the neck. SOTA-69111
Fixed visual issues while wearing a frogkin ring and some specific body/legs equipments. SOTA-68146
Wearing bodice bottoms on a male character should now show the correct skin color. SOTA-68719

Combat & Skill Changes:

Obsidian Snow Leopards should now be tameable. SOTA-70248

User Interface, Store Information, & Lua Changes:

Added UI when exiting the game to rate and/or comment about your game session. Feel free to give us your opinion! The survey is completely optional and only appears when the game asks you to confirm you want to exit to the main menu or quit.
The exit survey is intended to help us identify issues and get feedback from new and old players. This does not replace bug reports, feedback on mechanics, wishlist requests, or AskADev questions.

The purpose for the rating and feedback is mainly to determine what new players think of the game and their overall session experience. Of course, feedback from existing players is welcome as well, but please do not flood the survey feedback with duplicate information already being sent through AskADev or the forums, especially as the forums will allow for better detailed feedback from the veteran players on specific issues.
Added CapsLock detection at login screen (for Windows only)
Moved the currently equipped deck name near the Swap Deck icon button so it doesn’t hide under the alternate deck name
Made the name of the equipped deck white, but still bigger than the alternate deck to differentiate them
Hair and eye colors will stay the same instead of changing back to default when visiting New You Salons
Fixed the sounds functions in Lua which had index problems being off by 1

World and Quest Changes:

The Archlapin has gone into hiding for the year, but the Luminous Atavist is now making his presence known in encounters in Grunvald and in Northern Grunvald Barrens. Speak to Ranees Binders in Desolis to learn more.
Aether Dragons, Aether Liches, and Aether Corpions have awoken in their respective stomping grounds while the two-tailed comet is within range of the world.
Removed cap on crafting skills in Shardfalls. (Adventurer cap remains unchanged.) SOTA-70106
Fixed the town crier conversation being broken after saying “I lost my mail” for the mail delivery quest. SOTA-70486
Blackblade Foothills: Fixed an area of lava that was causing damage too far from the source. SOTA-70468
Blackblade Pass: Corrected compass marker names and locations for exits to Southeast Blackblade Mountains and Northwest Blackblade Mountains. SOTA-70496
Blood River Outskirts: Updated the “Poison Vigilante Food Supply” journal entry to clarify a replacement poison item can be collected from Phineas.
Blood River: Added extra opportunities to archive Arabella’s “Travel to Blood River” task with Robert Villines’ hello responses and the task’s “flag to complete” mechanism. SOTA-70360
Broken Echoes Silver Mines: Compass markers for the “Stop the Broken Echoes Foreman” should no longer appear until after acquiring that task. SOTA-70474
Castle Atos: Fixed a stuck spot in the bank. SOTA-70513
Caverns of Skrekk: Fixed non-interactive crates and regenerated the path grid. SOTA-70472
Crypt of the Avatar: Fixed an issue where the player couldn’t cast location-based spells on some floors. SOTA-70469
Crypt of the Avatar: Fixed issues including replacing a missing section of hallway, correcting hallway materials, and removing mysterious black effect throughout the scene. SOTA-70461
Desolis: Added additional compass markers for the “Obsidian Logbook” quest. Also, added “Obsidian Logbook” to description on all books. SOTA-70477
Grusk: Fixed a typo in one of Vishpop’s stories. Added a lantern near the lighthouse keeper.
Grusk: Fixed an issue with Vishpop’s story about “Skyfall,” which was only showing the final “come back tomorrow” comment.
Helpful Automaton: Added “helpful automaton” NPCs to Aerie, Blood River Outskirts, Castle Atos, Central Brittany, Grusk, Highvale Outskirts, Resolute, Solace Bridge Outskirts, and Soltown. In addition to useful tips, they offer helpful guidebooks, but only once! Additional tips will be added to their conversations over time.
Hilt Fortress: Fixed a bad path grid on a spiral staircase.
Hilt Fortress: Moved an inaccessible ore node to a nearby location where it can be mined. SOTA-70483
Hilt Fortress: Updated the compass markers that point avatars to the Obsidian Forge. SOTA-70482
Kingsport Sewer: Duke Rath’molag’s “Talk to Prisoner” task should only be given to the avatar upon his first death. SOTA-70446
Lost Whiteguard Silver Mine: Avatars entering Aelfraed’s Cathedral should no longer get the “Find Evidence that Wen is at Peace” compass marker unless they are on the previous stage of the quest. SOTA-70473
Midmaer Passage: Corrected location of compass marker for exit to Midras Vault. Added compass markers for exits to Mysterious Crypt and Necropolis. SOTA-70499, 70497
Midmaer Passage: Fixed an area of the water that allowed avatars to swim above the water. SOTA-70467
Necropolis Barrens: Converted the “destructible” Love Letters into an official resource node. SOTA-70478
Necropolis: Added compass marker for Exit to Midmaer Passage. SOTA-70498
Northwood: Fixed a visible “seam” in the terrain textures at a certain lot location. SOTA-68464
Rhun Vault: Fixed a stuck spot. SOTA-70494
Ruined Keep: Rebaked the navmesh. SOTA-70495
Solace Bridge Outskirts: Moved zombie spawners away from the bridge connecting to the guardpost bivouac.
Solace Bridge Outskirts: Sedgewick now also rewards feathers at the end of his arrow crafting quest. SOTA-70493
Solania Catacombs: Improved the path grid. SOTA-70466
Soltown: Fixed typos in Stanley’s “Baozhai” response. SOTA-70476
South Midmaer Way and Lamech’s Bazaar: Ensured palm trees are near each possible coconut resource node location. SOTA-70470
Spite: Slightly randomized the placement of the red rugs in the Mortuarium.
Spite: Updated the responses from Thetis to stop her from repeating herself. SOTA-66957
Tenebris Harbor: Moved a tree that was poking through a building wall. Regenerated the path grid. SOTA-70471
The Outlaws’ Run: Fixed several large rock formations which NPCs had trouble navigating and would sometimes walk through. SOTA-70512
Troll’s Bridge: Added a couple of places where wolves can spawn. Randomized where a chest can spawn.
Xenos: Fixed bumpy terrain within a housing lot that was blocking placement of decorations. SOTA-70457
Yew: Moved several problematic trees away from housing lots because their branches were reaching into the lots. SOTA-70481
POT Mountain Template: Increased the radius of ambient bird sound effects.

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Mith Trysull: Changed owner
Rampage Island: Upgraded to Crossroads Village
Shearwater Island: Changed biome to Island 01 and upgraded to Crossroads Village

Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream

The weekly Community Livestream is Friday, May 27th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “Boats and blossoms” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream, and we’ll even be periodically posting answers to some unanswered questions in the forums. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live frequently on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

Sales and Bonus Events

For Memorial Day weekend, the currently-running lot upgrade sale will be increased from 20% to 30% and Crowns of the Obsidians will go on sale (20%)! These will end Tuesday, as well as the currently-running double XP.

Release 102 Subscriber Login Rewards

Furnish your ritual space with fine pieces (…for whatever rituals you are performing; we don’t judge.) The Rewards Program login items for Release 102 really dress up a space. This month’s collection includes a Large Altar, a Table Altar, and an Octagonal Side Table.

Large Altar

Table Altar

Octagonal Side Table

Subscribers to the Rewards Program must log in during Release 102 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

June Login Reward

Log in during the month of June and you’ll receive a Double Candle Stand with which to lighten your nights.

Double Candle Stand

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for release day:

Large Ornate Altar

Altar Pew

Altar Bench

Tall Candle Stand

Short Candle Stand

Arriving June 1st:

Double Candle Stand

Arriving June 17th:

Large Altar

Table Altar

Octagonal Side Table

The Darkstarr store items are leaving the store on Saturday, May 28th:

Darkstarr Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Darkstarr Chaos Throne
Darkstarr Chaos Throne (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Clock Tower
Darkstarr Clock Tower (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Fur Collared Cloak
Darkstarr Pavers
Darkstarr Shield
Darkstarr Shield Pattern Pack
Lord British vs Darkstarr Battle Banner
Mosh Emote

The Summer Seasonal store items will become available Friday May 27th:

Firedancer Outfit
Fire Dance Emote
Fire Dance Cross Emote
Flame Scimitar
Flame Shield
Flame Stained Glass Table Lamp 3-Pack
Flaming Bagpipes
Hula Emote
Island Spear
Island Flower Crown
Island Dress

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Blue Butterfly Pet
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2022 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 102 – May 26 (Polish)
Release 103 – June 30 (Content)
Release 104 – July 28 (Polish)
Release 105 – August 25 (Content)
Release 106 – September 29 (Polish)
Release 107 – October 27 (Content)
Release 108 – November 17 (Polish)
Release 109 – December 15 (Content)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Catnip Games Contests:

Catnip Games Monthly Fishing Tourney: Greetings Anglers! The monthly Catnip Games Fishing Tourney is live! Join in on the fun! The R102 Fishing Tournament runs from 27-May-2022 at 12:00 AM (00:00) CDT to 30-Jun-2022 11:59 PM (23:59) CDT. Note that the R101 Tournament is still running for a few more hours until midnight on Release 102 day; you can still compete for the longest fish in the R101 tournament! Details for R102’s contest are posted here!

Catnip Games Monthly Treasure Hunting Contest: Want to go hunting for rare items? Want to see if you can beat other players in this quest for treasure? Well join in on the monthly treasure hunting contest, Avatars! The R102 Treasure Hunt runs from 27-May-2022 at 12:00 AM (00:00) CDT to 30-Jun-2022 11:59 PM (23:59) CDT. Note that the R101 Hunt is still running for a few more hours until midnight on Release 102 day; you can still compete in the R101 Hunt! Details for R102’s contest are posted here!

Recurring Events:

Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
Combat & Crafting Sunday School: Head on over to Immortal City every Sunday from 7PM to 9PM CT to learn the tricks of the trade in combat and crafting!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
RHEC Traveling Pop-Up Fishing Contest: Keep an eye out in universe chat, trade chat, and the forums! Asmodi M’hul will routinely announces at least one pop-up fishing contest every week for those anglers out there anxious for extra prizes and fun!
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Lightbringer Isle has changed their auction from weekly to monthly, to be held the Sunday after release at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Core Books Bundle! If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this unique gaming system and setting, now’s your chance! This bundle includes two beautifully illustrated, full-color, hardcover books: the original Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts book! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! While not yet live, they plan to release later this year and you can join the closed beta now by pre-ordering from embersadrift.com. Check out their newly released video here:

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

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04/28/2022 07:21 AM

Read by Chatull Aventari

Chapter Four. How Much for That Information?

Thick mist in the early dawn made the still water of the lake reflect only the muted grey of the world around; even the birds were silent. It was quiet and mesmerizing to watch the nothing. After a long while of watching birds hunt low over the water, and rippling rings of movement in the water where fish pecked at bugs on the surface of the smooth deep blue, I went back in the inn and woke the other two women.

We then all made our way downstairs from where we had fallen asleep on the second floor of the pavilion. After breaking our fast with leftover bread from our bags, we had a bit of a hike up the mountain to where the wagon collected us to start us on our journey to Ironhall.

The jaunt out of Jade Mountains and over to the island’s shore had revitalized our bodies and minds and even our spirits lifted when, by midmorning, the mist had burned off enough to see the light flicker through and warm the chill out of the day. There were massive thunderheads and the sky remained in a darkened battle with itself high above the sea as we journeyed that day.

I would have liked to have sung a song of joy and beauty, but I dared not. I was sure that sore vocal cords, the aches in my muscles, and the headache I still suffered were all worth the revelry around the firepit the night before, but this suffering wasn’t something I wanted to repeat anytime soon. From the looks of the other two, it appeared like Zyrina and Lucy would agree with me.

Zyrina became horribly sick after her first meal on the ship and we teased her a little about her travel stomach, thinking the motion of the ship had set her off but Lucy went snooping and found a problem in the filthy kitchen. The ship’s cook had died of some mysterious stomach ailment just before we had boarded.

Lucy first convinced whatever sailor had unfortunately pulled kitchen duty for this voyage that she was indeed a good cook and wanted to cook a meal, that she was bored as a passenger and would prefer to help in the kitchen. Lucy started by cleaning up the galley kitchen with hot water and soap, then she taught a few of the sailors a simple recipe for fish that they could do on their own. The captain humored her and then cheerfully let her cook the rest of the meals on the voyage after tasting his first helping of her fish stew and biscuits. He had three helpings. The rest of the crew were won over by the very same meal. Zyrina spent most of the voyage either sick or recovering from being sick. It looked like the sea did not agree with her, after all.

I spent the days practicing a new sea shanty that I heard some of the crew singing one day while they scrubbed the deck. Most of the time I could be found wandering around humming the tune.

When we arrived at Ironhall the sounds and sights near the docks kept our senses occupied while we searched for Violet’s ship and also for the young man called Finn Beanna. Although Fiona had been explicit about how to get to Ironhall, she was vague on the location of Finn’s working area or his schedule or pretty much anything other than he would know where all the ships that arrived at the local port were heading, or where they had been. Asking for him didn’t help. The locals stared at us as if we were asking why the sky wasn’t a lemon meringue pie and then they clammed up or wandered off. There was no help for it: we would have to search to find Laketown and then search Laketown from one end to the other.

We split up and started looking. Zyrina eventually found him and called us over. He was sitting behind the Broken Docks Inn and looking for all the world as if he were avoiding being found. He didn’t seem especially friendly, either. We decided on a friendly approach anyway, with a gift of rum from my backpack and bread from Lucy’s.

What man can withstand three beautiful women bearing rum and bread? I tell you that Finn almost did. We got so little information from him after several minutes of talk that we began to wonder at Fiona’s glowing endorsement.

Finally, Lucy had had enough of the vagueness. “Fiona said he would know where the ship had gone.” Lucy complained in a half-whisper to me. Finn suddenly perked up.

“Fiona, you say? You traveled from Jade Mountains. Is it Fiona Thatcher that you mention?”

I looked him in the eyes, which he had finally dragged off of the map and scrap paper that he had been pretending to read the entire time. “Fiona. Yes, she gave you an encouraging testimonial but I’m skeptical at this point. You don’t seem to know much of what is outside your map.” At this I nodded toward the paper that Finn was rolling back up.

Finn narrowed his eyes. “Can’t be too careful these days, ladies. There are far too many forces afoot to be glib about casually passing information.” Then he added casually, “How is Fiona? Her brother Oscar tells me nothing of her when he and I work at the docks, and he rarely works at the docks anymore.”

I smiled to myself as I recognized Finn’s feigned casual interest in Fiona’s wellbeing. “Fiona was healthy and full of vigor when she left us to go cook stew for Oscar.”

“What do you mean by ‘forces afoot’?” Zyrina interjected, curious.

Meanwhile I was sizing up the young man and his surroundings. There were no clues that he would know the whereabouts of any of the ships that came and went in the harbour, let alone anything else in Ironhall. Lucy and I gave each other quizzical looks and shrugged our shoulders. Maybe Fiona was wrong about Finn.

“Well, let’s see,” Finn narrowed his eyes and took a darting look around the area before speaking further. “Take that tattooed mage that waited nearly a week for the ship he arrived on to leave again. He had come from Spindleskog and arrived on a passenger ship that had scheduled to be here for a week. He was not pleased and tried to bribe the captain to leave again on his schedule, but the captain refused. The trouble-making mage asked probing questions about everything and everybody in the whole of Laketown and gave little away about himself.” Here Zyrina looked over at me.

I stuck my tongue out at her and grinned knowing how inquisitive I seemed.

“Why would some traveler button it?” Finn sounded truly perplexed even as he continued to look down while fiddling with the rolled parchment in his clenched hands.

“What mage is this?” It was Lucy’s turn to perk up.

“The quiet one?” Finn returned with a question.

Finn found himself facing three pair of iron-tinged inquiring eyes. He decided that more information-sharing might be in his best interest. After finally putting down the now-wrinkled scroll and scrap of paper, he accepted the bread, then the rum.

Then he added, “Did Fiona say if she was coming here to meet you?” He looked over their shoulders hopefully.

“No. She is staying in Jade Mountains and not travelling with us. She did say she expected you for dinner on your return to Jade Mountain.” Smiling, I let him down gently and though he appeared to lose interest in us, he did perk up again when I repeated, “She did say she expected you for dinner.” He looked engrossed again following the promise of a meal in the future with Fiona, so I prompted, “Tattooed mage?”

“Tattooed. mage. Tattooed mage,” he mimicked. Zyrina went completely still except her left hand which gripped her bow and her right hand which went automatically to the fletching on her arrows. Finn looked up in the silence after his sarcastic comment. The glaring didn’t cease, and those arrows in the sullen one’s hands looked sharp and deadly; so, he continued with a false bravado and an indifferent shrug to start telling what he knew of the mage.

“Small, blue and green tattoos on his face, walked nonstop during the day. Didn’t sit much. Dressed in obsidian robes, I think. He carried a big blue bag and a little leather-bound book that he seemed particularly fond of. He spent far too much time reading to himself under his breath from the book while he waited for the ship’s repair.”

Lucy shifted her weight and her armor squeaked loudly. “Do you know where he was going?” she asked quietly.

He looked up for a flicker of a moment, “Nope, but he came here to go to the Caverns of Skrekk. Nope, I don’t know what he was doing there either,” he forestalled after seeing the question rising in my eyes. Then he added as an afterthought, “He wasn’t an especially skilled mage. He often got sidetracked during spellcasting if even something as harmless as a stray cat walked by. Every now and then he would try some magic, but it never seemed to go the way he wanted it to go. As well, the ship he arrived on needed repair from his onboard failures. There were several fires and one small explosion here in Laketown that I helped put out.” He puffed out proudly. “Not one building burnt down.”

We stood motionless listening to him. He seemed to warm up to his story. He continued after a pause for a nip of rum straight from the bottle and a chunk of bread, which he tucked back into his robes without sharing. “That mage stomped around the village every single day rain or shine; walking, walking, always walking and muttering to himself, too. I tried to get him to go to the pub to share a pint and a story or two, but he’d just stare through me until I had to give up. It was that unnerving.” He shuddered a little. “We was all relieved to see him get back on the ship when she was ready to sail again.”

At this, we all reacted with raised eyebrows. He took in our reactions and went on, “None thought we’d see the end of him, he was that picky about everything. As if there were something to pick from. The Sea Byrd remained the only ship that anchored in port at Ironhall for the entire week so in the end he went back on board but only after he offered the captain 3 times the normal passenger fee to take him back.”

“The SEA BYRD? That’s my sister’s ship!”

“When did it leave?”

“Where did it go?”

“Did you see a snowy lynx on the ship?”

Finn laughed heartily at the successive questions and answered openly, “Yes. She left this morning, just as your ship arrived. Jade Valley is their next destination.”

Here I gasped, “That’s my home.”

Finn ignored me and continued, “The crew was muttering about the captain sending their best cook on an errand and having to drop her off along the way, but I didn’t hear where to. Something about a cook, a fish stew, and an escort mission.” He forestalled the next question shaking his head and wringing his hands in front of him, “No, I don’t know where after Jade Valley, but I know they are going to end up in Jade Island at Green’s Inch where Captain Violet likes to spend the winters.” He didn’t nearly look as ready to bolt in any direction at any minute anymore and I could see Rina had released the tension on her bow so she must be having the same thoughts as me.

Zyrina gave me a curt nod after moving slowly around behind Finn again.

I was relieved and thanked him by going on, “I really didn’t think it would be that easy to get this information we needed from you Finn, and here you just blurted some out.”

Then Zyrina narrowed her eyes, jutted out her chin and asked him very directly, “What is it you want in return for this information?”

Finn looked at her and shrugged. He had warmed up to us when he finally realized we were not searching for HIM particularly, and he was not the real target of our very pointy-looking arrows and blades. “Nothing,” he shrugged again. “You are friends of Fiona’s. If you had told me that at the beginning, we might have had an easier start.” He stared hard right back at Zyrina. “If you are looking for the Sea Byrd, the shipping schedules are usually posted on the public bulletin board near the arrival area, if it’s a town the Sea Byrd regularly docks in, that is. It’s the same for all the places that she travels.” Zyrina again strode behind Finn to take a leisurely look at the lake beyond.

She gave me a quick wink and I nodded once, knowing.

He looked at me, “Do you know where else your sister is sailing to?”

I shook my head, frowning slightly. And to keep his attention on me I asked, “How long till she comes back?”

“Could be weeks or months. Some of the locals have a betting pool on for odds of their returning date. Wanna place a bet?” At this, his eyes darted from side to side and he looked at Lucy and I, furtively.

I shook my head no, as did Lucy. He turned to Zyrina who also declined to place a bet.

“Fair enough.”

“Good day, we will take our leave. Thank you for your assistance.” Lucy nodded her head to him. And with that curt farewell, we picked up our bags and walked out of town.

The minute we were out of sight and earshot I asked Zyrina, “Did you get it?”

“Yep.” She pulled the stolen papers out of her boot that Finn had been so intent upon when we first arrived. They had suffered quite a few wrinkles in the process but were completely readable still. “The Southern Red Branch” was scrawled across the top of a detailed map of Elysium Island with several towns circled in red. Jade Valley was one of those.

And another scrap paper tucked inside the map simply said:

3-2-2

M

“Now what the Titans does that mean?” Lucy was as perplexed as I was.

“Same writing as that other paper with numbers, from Riverside, and from Scroda’s too,” she pulled them from her pack. “See?”

Zyrina was right. Although the papers’ torn edges didn’t match, we could see that the numbers were drawn by the same hand. Still without understanding, Zyrina added the new set of numbers to the pile and tucked them all away in her backpack.

“Have any of you heard of the Southern Red Branch before? Do you think they are part of the Red Sashes?” I asked the others as I ran my fingers over the raised embossed heading on the map. The only answers were head shakes or shrugs. No one spoke up.

“Come on, let’s go home.” I decided.

Echoes From the Caverns

The post The Stone Dragon Series – Book 2, Chapter 4 appeared first on Echoes from the Caverns.

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04/27/2022 11:24 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 101 goes live April 28th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 101 (R101), our range of mounts has been extended to big cats!

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to...

Play Release 101!

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04/27/2022 11:00 PM

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Release 101 goes live April 28th at 10:30 AM CDT.

Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 101 (R101), our range of mounts has been extended to big cats!

For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.

News Announcements

Community Updates

New Big Cat Mounts!

Black Panthers, Jaguars, Lionesses, and Snow Leopards have been successfully trained to accept riders by the skilled and secretive New Britannian cat-trainers and are available for purchase in the Crown Store. They’re sure the other big cats will cooperate as soon as they identify the right kind of ~~bribe~~ treat…

Sneak Preview: Grusk Factory

Grusk Factory is not open for tours this month, but we have a couple of preview images from Sannio. …It looks dark in there. Very efficient, kobolds.

Release 101 Patch Notes

Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 101 (R101) in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! R101 is a content, improvements, and bug fixes month. Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R102 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 101!

Crafting, Decoration, & Inventory Item Changes:

Three new seating recipes can be found at deco merchant in the region of the Perennial Coast: Arched Wooden Armchair, Wood and Leather Chair, and Simple Small Wood Bench. SOTA-70426
Fixed Acara helm and glove material colors
Updated Castle Teleporter to act as other POT Teleporters, allowing player to choose destination instead of being set to Castle Atos. SOTA-70351

Combat & Skill Changes:

Fixed big cat skills: Re-added the pounce skill with its correct animation and fixed range issues and hooked up roar animation for roar skills. SOTA-70345 and 70346
Fixed issue with legendary lion referencing wrong visual, causing it to disassociate from its nameplate. (Other legendary cats still pending.) SOTA-70053
Fixes for Acara armor attunement effect not applying properly and not applying the air damage. SOTA-70166

User Interface, Store Information, & Lua Changes:

Items can now be linked in chat. Right-click an item and click “Link to chat.” They cannot be linked in Universe; doing so will just result in the name of item being sent without the mouseover information. There is a character limit: the usual limit for player input is 384 and an internal limit to link items is now 2000 to allow multiple items to be linked at once.
Added a /translate command to use in chat. This will translate the last line in the chat to the current language set in game options, or you can specify it when entering the command (e.g. “/translate en”). More information can be found in the player guide.
Players can now use /time to display their local (real life) date/time, server date/time, AND New Brittania date/time in the chat window. SOTA-70427
Added a Lua Add-On Manager which can be found in the Window Selection menu in game. More information is in the forums here.
Scripts using the new UI feature in Lua will have their window hidden between screenload and in game menu.
Added two new Lua functions. ShroudOnExperienceChanged returns the amount of experience added in pool and the type, adventurer or producer. ShroudOnDisableScript() is a convenient method for a Lua scripter to clean up their script when a player disables it in the manager. More information about this in the forum and in the Lua API document.
Made private party creation be on roll mode by default.
Added a scrollbar in the description part of the crown store window to prevent some cases of icons overlapping the text. Large amounts of text will be more visible now as it won’t shrink anymore.
Reduced the height of the teleport scroll UI a bit so it can fit on everyone’s screens.
The previous fix for heartbeat sounds when entering a scene removed the trigger for low health. Now everything should work as expected. SOTA-70422
When someone is set PvP or is in a PvP scene and goes AFK they will get disconnected after being AFK for 20 minutes (or 10 minutes after the flag is set). Increased AFK flag time by 5 minutes.
Names of PvP players will no longer be shown blue when typed in chat.
Updated Housing tax/eviction timer email text to advise that the house with deco will be placed in the Property Manager instead of sent to the bank. SOTA-70358

World and Quest Changes:

Fixed issue with young snow tigers spawning incorrectly. SOTA-70227
Players will now be able to see other players again on elevators/moving platforms. SOTA-69027
Avatars won’t appear crouched after getting off of elevators/moving platforms. SOTA-70341
Arabella: Added a “bonesteel” response that will remove an artifact from players who shouldn’t yet have it.
Devotional Caretakers: Updated the logic to archive the “Tell Kiln Caretaker About Indigno” and “Tell Eastmarch Caretaker About Fastus” tasks.
Path of Truth: Updated logic for “Travel to Blood River” and “Explore Artifice” to help them automatically archive when required. SOTA-70360
Aldwater: Fixed an issue where pavers were floating at the exit archways. SOTA-70386
Ardoris: Added extra logic to help clear Timothy the Enchanter’s “Find the Beast’s Lair” task, including saying by “hello” to him after completing the activity. SOTA-70382
Ardoris: Improved the logic which helps clear the “Mention Writ to Min” and “Ask Min Liang Tan about the Emperor’s Writ” tasks.
Ardoris: Stephanie Broadmeadow now highlights with blue sparkles and waves her hands in relation to her “5 paintings” quest. SOTA-70383
Blood Bay: Plugged a gap below some rocks near a shoreline where ocean water could be seen through the gap. SOTA-70387
Braemar: Moved a floating pillow to the top of a bed. SOTA-70388
Castle Atos: Fixed a pathfinding issue where NPCs would sometimes stumble on cracks between floor pieces. SOTA-70365
Dysborg Ruins: Moved a fishing hotspot to a spot where it can be accessed. SOTA-70364
Grusk: Fixed a ladder with a bad teleport target. Improved how avatars can get to the top of the mountain by the factory. Adjusted some rocks that players could see through. Moved some floating trees to ground level. SOTA-70367, 70359, 70366, 70368, and 70361
Grusk: Fixed several floating bushes. SOTA-70385
Grusk: Moved floating bushes to the ground. Blocked a gap underneath several factory walls. SOTA-70398
Grusk: The Storehouse Container shelter now has a unique set of turn-ins. The common items are Metal Scrap, Small Ball of Clay, Animal Hide, and Animal Bone. The uncommon item is Crocodile Head. SOTA-70206
Malice: Hid several purple trigger volumes that were visible to players. SOTA-70300
Outskirts: Crafting merchants in all three outskirts each now sell one type of board recipe. SOTA-70354
Owl’s Head: Fixed a typo in the chat message for the “Get Morton’s Ledger” task.
Owl’s Head: Improved the logic for how “Tell Morgan the Task is Complete” archives when talking to Morgan. Avatars who still have this task can try saying “the task is complete” to Morgan even if the quest has concluded. SOTA-70371
Sawtooth Thicket: Moved a floating axe to a nearby stump. SOTA-70362
Solace Bridge Outskirts: For quest reasons, players cannot skip the conversation with the alchemist. SOTA-69948
Solace Bridge Outskirts: Improved the logic which clears Filmore’s “Kill Wolf, Retrieve Collar” task. Avatars who have this lingering task should say “Betty” to Filmore to clear it.
South Boundless Forest: Increased player count to 32 from 16.
Spectral Mines: Added extra logic to help clear Timothy the Enchanter’s “Find the Beast’s Lair” task after defeating the archlapin. SOTA-70382
The Fall: Updated the tiger spawners to ensure all spawners worked and with a better chance to spawn high-tier enemies. SOTA-70363
Vertas: Moved several floating posts into the ground. SOTA-70399
Wynton’s Folly: Moved a piece of floating garlic to the ground. SOTA-70389

Player-Owned Town Changes:

Argent Aspis: Upgraded to Hamlet.
Avallon: Upgraded to Crossroads Village. Consolidated dev-placed teleporter boats.
Chaos ar’ mori’elen ten’oio: Added new holdfast to Mistrendur, on the southern shoreline of the central island.
Lamplight: Added new Holdfast to Novia next to the Elysium Mines.
Meadow’s Edge: Upgraded to Metropolis.
M’hul Island: Upgraded to Crossroads Village.
Mith Trysull: Added new town to Novia southwest of Vauban Pass.
Regnum: Added new Holdfast north of Ardoris.
Shearwater Island: Added new island village along the shore west of Ardoris.
Silk Road: Upgraded to Town.
TheBonusRole Undercity: Added new Village in Novia near the Whiteguard Foothills.
Twin Traders: Upgraded to Village.

R101 Map of Novia

R101 Map of Mistrendur

Player Dungeon Changes:

Fixed some dungeon rooms and navmeshes: Hilt Rotunda, Hilt Spider Room, the Rise Dog Run, and the Rise Library.

Latest News and Q&A Friday Livestream

The weekly Community Livestream is Friday, April 29th at 4PM CT on Twitch! Join Chris “Atos” Spears and other members of the development team for a 1-hour community livestream!

To enter the prize drawings, type “I speak for the trees” into any in-game chat channel OR make a purchase on the website Add-On Store.

Please submit questions using in-game universal chat by typing “askadev” before your question. We’ll do our best to answer these questions live on the stream, and we’ll even be periodically posting answers to some unanswered questions in the forums each month. Watch on Twitch, Friday at 4PM CT!

Atos and other members of the Shroud of the Avatar development team go live frequently on twitch.tv/shroudoftheavatar — be sure to get the channel on follow for notifications so you can join us right as we go live! Also, if you’ve missed our latest streams, check out our archive of content at our YouTube Channel. Like! Follow! Subscribe! Prizes!!!

Don’t forget to also join the Shroud of the Avatar team and community over at all our social media venues:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShroudoftheAvatar/
Catnip Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/catnipgames
Shroud of the Avatar Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShroudofAvatar
Shroud of the Avatar Discord: https://discord.gg/shroudoftheavatar

Release 101 Subscriber Login Rewards

Seat your May Queen (or yourself) in style! The Rewards Program login items for Release 101 are regal and comfortable. This month’s collection includes a set of three new thrones: an Ornate Wooden Chest Throne (with container), an Ornate Wooden Throne with Gold Inlay, and an Ornate Wooden Throne with Velvet Panels (dyeable!)

Subscribers to the Reward Program must log in during Release 101 to receive these special login items.

The Shroud of the Avatar Rewards Program lets you earn the best rate on purchasing Crowns, AND receive monthly reward items! For the low price of $9 USD per month you will receive the following:

900 Crowns of the Obsidians every month
Monthly Login Reward Items (about 3 per month)
Exclusive Title every 3 months
- 3 Months: Keeper of the Faith
- 6 Months: Keeper of the Word
- 9 Months: Keeper of the Vow
- 12 Months: Keeper of the Flame
- 15 Months: Keeper of the Oath
- 18 Months: Keeper of the Pledge
- 21 Months: Keeper of the Bond
- 24 Months: Keeper of the Promise
- 27 Months: Keeper of the Covenant
Pick any Dye 12-Pack every 6 months
Pick any three of these 7 Obsidian Potions every month:
- Potion of Capacity: Increases carrying capacity
- Potion of Conservation: Reduces reagent use chance
- Potion of Expedience: Swift gathering on all gathering skills
- Potion of Precision: Increases Meticulous Collection to all gathering skills
- Potion of Preservation: Reduces armor and weapon damage
- Potion of Reclamation: Increases Salvage and Repair to all production skills
- Potion of Stamina: Decreases focus use from sprinting
While subscribed to the rewards program, players also receive these special bonuses:
- Obsidian Potions are significantly more powerful!
- 24 Additional Deck Slots!

May Login Reward

Log in during the month of May and you’ll receive a Gothic Dining Chair with which to feather your nest.

Crown Store Updates

New in the crown store for Release 101:

Black Panther Mount

Jaguar Mount

Lioness Mount

Snow Leopard Mount

Cantabrigian Cat Decoration Pet

Gothic Curule Armchair 2 Pack

Gothic Heavy Armchair with Arches 2 Pack

Gothic Dining Chair 6 Pack

Arriving May 4th:

Ornate Wooden Chest Throne

Ornate Wooden Throne with Gold Inlay

Ornate Wooden Throne with Velvet Panels

The Spring Seasonal store items are still available! These rare Spring items will remain on the store until May 3rd:

Bunny Ears & Slippers Set
Decorative Dyeable Egg Pack
Flower Crown
Lepus Mask 2017
Lepus Mask 2018
Silver & Gold Lepus Mask
White Lepus Mask
Rabbit Tailed Bodice Ensemble
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2016
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2017
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2018
Replenishing Confetti Eggs Basket 2019
Spring Fountain w/ Floating Candles

The Darkstarr store items are still available! These birthday items will remain on the store until May 28th:

Darkstarr Basement Entrance Eternal Pattern
Darkstarr Chaos Throne
Darkstarr Chaos Throne (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Clock Tower
Darkstarr Clock Tower (Reverse Colors)
Darkstarr Fur Collared Cloak
Darkstarr Pavers
Darkstarr Shield
Darkstarr Shield Pattern Pack
Lord British vs Darkstarr Battle Banner
Mosh Emote

Bug Brigade & Testing Directives!

The Bug Brigade was established to improve how the community and the development team work together to improve the game. Since the Brigade’s inception, the program has gone through a number of changes and was eventually placed on hold. The stability of the game is as important to the development team as it is to the players, therefore the program was revamped and was relaunched.

The Brigade has been up and running and the volunteers (Alley Oop, Echondas, and Justyn) are in a good rhythm for verifying and submitting bugs to the developers. If you have reported a bug that has not yet been addressed, please be patient while the backlog is being worked. The Brigade is working diligently to clean up the backlog of bug reports posted by players on the forums.

Every month, a considerable amount of development time will be spent working many of the verified bugs which have been submitted to the team by the Bug Brigade. This focused effort on bug fixes would not be possible without the recent efforts of the Bug Brigade. Please take the time to thank these bug hunting aficionados when you encounter them in your travels!

In turn, the development team would like to express a big thank you to the Bug Hunters! These community members are doing a fantastic job bringing so many bug reports to the team, and they’re doing it in a way which makes the process smooth and efficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much improvement has been noticed by the development team and we’re so very excited to see the program’s continued success!

The development team would also like to thank all of those who take time to participate in QA Testing Directives. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, many issues and bugs can be identified and fixed prior to content going to the Live Server! Keep up the great work! For those that wish to participate in future bug hunting endeavors, please check the forums regularly for upcoming QA Testing Directives.

Don’t forget, the Bug Brigade is open to all players in good standing and bug rewards are SWEET! They will be awarded on a monthly progression basis with only minimal requirements to qualify. The available rewards to receive in progression via qualifying participation are as follows:

Antennae Head Gear and Forum Title 1: “Bug Hunter”
Single Ant Cloak
Lady Bug Backpack
Bug Painting A and In-Game Title 2: “Associate of Aphids”
Ant Farm
Insect Leg Table
Many Ants Cloak and In-Game Title 3: “Bachelor of Beetles”
Bug Painting B
Bug Sprayer and /bugspray Emote
Bug Painting C and In-Game Title 4: “Master of Moths”
Butterfly Chair
Corpion Chair (Pictured Below)
Yellow Fireflies VFX and In-Game Title 5: “Doctor of Dragonflies”
Hacked Oracle Flyer
Giant Blue Butterfly Pet
Butterfly Mask
Dragonfly pet
Fairy Wings
Monarch Butterfly Pet
Dragonfly Wings
Hacked Oracle Crawler
Blue Butterfly VFX
Orange Fireflies VFX
Orange Butterfly VFX

If you’ve come to think of Shroud of the Avatar as your home, sign up and help make New Britannia a better place to live! To learn more about joining the Bug Brigade, please read the announcement thread by Ravalox in the main Bug/Feedback forums.

Streamer Program

Streamers of Shroud of the Avatar can participate in a program to showcase the game and be rewarded for their efforts. Any Streamer who wishes to be included in the Streamer Program can contact Laney via in-game mail with their Character Name and Twitch Channel information. If you have already signed up for the program in the past, fear not: you’re on the list and you don’t need to reapply.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must adhere to our Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Rules while Streaming Shroud of the Avatar.

Streaming Rewards Program participants must stream at least 10 hours of Shroud of the Avatar ACTIVE game play to remain in the program with reward accrual.

Streamers will receive a one-time digital reward of in-game items after meeting the program’s requirements: Streamer’s Cloak, Streamer’s Camera, and the LIVESTREAMING title.

Rules:

To qualify for Streamer Rewards, each streamer must continue to meet the minimum requirements for 60 days after application.
To accrue additional rewards, Streamers must stream SotA a minimum of 10 hours per month, tallied on the 1^st day of each month, to remain in the program.

Monthly Streamer Bundles:

On the 1st of each month, qualifying streamers will be eligible to receive 50 Streamer Bundles. Bundles will be sent out to Streamers via in-game mail.

A few things you need to know:

Streamer Bundles are intended to be given away to stream viewers, not consumed by the streamer.
Streamers are not allowed to put paywalls in place for the Streamer Bundles. (For example, giving away Streamer Bundles once the stream reaches a certain number of bits, subscriptions, or donations).

Other Items of Note:

Streamers in the program will be included in the SotAbot StreamPop function, appearing in the player-streaming channel in Discord.
An optional “Streamers Kit” is available to the participating streamers as well as all players of Shroud of the Avatar, which includes graphics, overlays and other material.
Streamers must be actively playing the game during their streams. Being away from the keyboard (AFK) for short periods is acceptable. If Twitch indicates the streamer is playing SotA but they are streaming other content or a timeout/login screen, they risk being removed from the program.

Upcoming Release Dates

Be sure to check out the Upcoming Events page for spotlighted events plus links to various areas to post or find events on our forums. The upcoming 2022 Release Schedule is as follows:

This Release 101 – Apr 28 (Content)
Release 102 – May 26 (Polish)
Release 103 – June 30 (Content)
Release 104 – July 28 (Polish)
Release 105 – August 25 (Content)
Release 106 – September 29 (Polish)
Release 107 – October 27 (Content)
Release 108 – November 17 (Polish)
Release 109 – December 15 (Content)

Community Events & Resources

Greetings event holders and event attendees! So many fun and exciting events are available in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to get out there and participate, make some new friends, perhaps make some great emote, recipe, or gear trades, or get some adventuring and role-playing into your mix! Here are spotlighted events or updated community resources that we’ve noticed popping up lately on the official forums.

Catnip Games Contests:

Catnip Games Monthly Fishing Tourney: Greetings Anglers! The monthly Catnip Games Fishing Tourney is live! Join in on the fun! The R101 Fishing Tournament runs from 29-Apr-2022 at 12:00 AM (00:00) CDT to 26-May-2022 11:59 PM (23:59) CDT. Note that the R100 Tournament is still running for a few more hours until midnight on Release 101 day; you can still compete for the longest fish in the R100 tournament! For R101, catch the longest fish in any of these 4 categories:
- POTs (Saltwater fish only): Arlia, Avallon, Mystic Isle, Ordinis Mortis, Rampage Island, and Rock Ridge
- NPC Scenes (Saltwater fish only): Aerie, Ardoris, and Xenos
- PVP (Saltwater fish only): Verdantis Shardfall
- Lava (lava only): Rajazel (POT), Sunless Barrens
Prizes in each category include:
- 1st Place: Player-Owned Town Village Lot Deed, Large Gold Fishing Trophy, Title
- 2nd Place: Player-Owned Town Row Lot Deed, Large Silver Fishing Trophy, Title
- 3rd Place: 50 Blood Leeches, Large Bronze Fishing Trophy, Title

Catnip Games Monthly Treasure Hunting Contest: Want to go hunting for rare items? Want to see if you can beat other players in this quest for treasure? Well join in on the monthly treasure hunting contest, Avatars! The R101 Treasure Hunt runs from 29-Apr-2022 at 12:00 AM (00:00) CDT to 26-May-2022 11:59 PM (23:59) CDT. Note that the R100 Hunt is still running for a few more hours until midnight on Release 101 day; you can still compete in the R100 Hunt! For R101, loot the most of the specific items in 2 categories:
PVP Scene: Rhun Ruins – Obsidian Chips, Corpse Wax, Chaos Plant Pollen, and various Ores
- 1st Place: Player-Owned Town Village Lot Deed, Large PvP Shard Trophy, Title
- 2nd Place: Player-Owned Row Lot Deed, Medium PvP Shard Trophy, Title
- 3rd Place: Melted Candle Cluster A, Small PvP Shard Trophy, Title
PVE Scenes: Spectral Mines – Gems, Rocks, and Ore
- 1st Place: Player-Owned Town Village Lot Deed, Large Sword in the Stone Trophy, Title
- 2nd Place: Player-Owned Row Lot Deed, Medium Sword in the Stone Trophy, Title
- 3rd Place: Melted Candle Cluster A, Small Sword in the Stone Trophy, Title

Recurring Events:

Trash to Treasure Dropped Items Turn-In: Some unscrupulous fella has been flooding all of New Britannia with junk: Headdresses, Wings, Backpacks, assorted miscellany of every sort. It’s time to clean this trash up and so a bounty has been placed on all gear crafted by Coswald Dirthmire that is turned in each contest period!
Lightbringer Isle Fishing Contest: Why not earn some extra prizes each month and participate in Lightbringer Isle’s monthly fishing tourney? Lots of fantastic prizes — don’t miss out!
Combat & Crafting Sunday School: Head on over to Immortal City every Sunday from 7PM to 9PM CT to learn the tricks of the trade in combat and crafting!
500 Crown Leisurely Fishing: Sonja Solar and friends are running a continuous fishing contest in Brittany Fort “Now and Forever for All Eternity” which has wonderful prizes and objectives. You can now win 500 Crowns for record fishies caught in Brittany Fort by anybody at any time in history for display in Sonja Solar’s fishy aquarium museum. Be sure to watch the video indicated in the “Brittany Fort” link provided in the first post to see the full explanation of the contest rules.
RHEC Traveling Pop-Up Fishing Contest: Keep an eye out in universe chat, trade chat, and the forums! Asmodi M’hul will routinely announces at least one pop-up fishing contest every week for those anglers out there anxious for extra prizes and fun!
Lightbringer Isle Auction: Ladies and gentlemen! The Citizens of Lightbringer Isle welcome you to the weekly auctions! The auctions are about bringing together people from all corners of the community, with the Lightbringer Isle’s market being the perfect place to do so! Join us every Sunday at 11AM CT!

Community Calendars:

Avatars-Virtue Radio Calendar: Just when are all those talented DJ’s and streamers broadcasting? Don’t just guess, check out there very helpful calendar! Never again will you wonder when’s the best time to tune in!
NBNN Calendar: This calendar provides a great schedule for NBNN and WRFB programing as well as many other community events. If you’re a fan of the Laz & Jack show or even if you’re hoping to catch them in action for the first time, this is the calendar for you!
SotA Event Calendar: Event participants, take heed! Thoryk Omara has done a wondrous job creating a community event calendar which is available to all players of Shroud of the Avatar. Please make an effort to support this new calendar. The more resources players have at their disposable for event notifications, the better!

Community Event Resources: Here are some fantastic resources for tracking down community events or posting your own events. Become involved! Create! Explore! Make friends! But most of all, have fun!

One-Time Community Events Forum: Sometimes events happen only a single time, so you’ll not want to miss out on these events as they occur. Check out the forums routinely to spot these!
Recurring Community Events Forum: Some events occur on weekly or monthly schedules which are a great way to routinely meet up with friends and to make new ones. Be sure to check this forum frequently for new events or time changes to existing ones.
Game Master (GM) Potion Request Procedures: Shroud of the Avatar has an amazing in-game consumable for player event holders — the Potion of Temporary GM Powers! Players wishing to enhance their in-game community event by having GM Powers at their disposal need to simply follow the procedures outlined in this forum thread.
Player Event Trophies and Special Item Requests: Would you like to request a special trophy or renamed item for a player event you’ve created? Head on over to this thread to see what’s available and to obtain more information about request procedures.
Player Radio Station Forum: If you want to check out the latest and greatest from our in-game radio stations, go to the radio stations forum! If you’re a DJ, be sure to advertise your time slot and venue in this forum.
Player Livestreams & Videos Forum: If you’re searching for a Shroud Streamer to watch, head on over to the streamer forum! If you are a live streamer for Shroud of the Avatar, be sure to advertise your Shroud stream by posting in this forum.
Town Directory Forum: Want to find a town to live in or get your town listed in the directory, head over to the forums and check it out!
Guild Directory Forum: Looking for a guild or want to get yours posted in the guild directory? Head on over to the forums and check it out!
Fire Lotus Tavern: This wondrous role-playing and story writing forum is the spot to be if you love fan fiction and role-play.
Community Resources: Looking for links to community and official resources for Shroud of the Avatar? Well look no further. On this page you’ll find links to a plethora of helpful resources created by the dev team or the community.

SO many options to stay tuned-in with fellow community members. Please take advantage of all these wonderful options. Happy adventures, Avatars!

Project to Support: Shard RPG

Shard Studios invites you to enter the fantastic world Dárdünah, the vast shard of a shattered realm, as presented in the colorful pages of the SHARD RPG! Many years in the making, this system allows players to choose from a wide variety of animal people who are the main cast of the many adventures this otherworldly setting offers. Skyships glide through shimmering clouds past majestic crystal peaks. Giant insects prowl alien jungles or lurk in the sparkling emerald seas. Warriors with blades of diamond and amber duel across crimson sands. And mystics chant in shadowy chambers as their spirits wander abroad.

Intro Sheet: For a quick glimpse into the world of Dárdünah, be sure to download the intro pdf! It’s packed with great information and features beautiful artwork, not unlike the artwork found throughout the many pages of this gaming system’s gorgeously designed manuals.
Core System Manuals: It’s easier than ever to delve into Dárdünah, World of the False Dawn, with the Core Books Bundle! If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this unique gaming system and setting, now’s your chance! This bundle includes two beautifully illustrated, full-color, hardcover books: the original Basic Compendium and the Magic and Martial Arts book! They contain everything you need to begin your adventures, and include instructions for the ritual magic and martial arts combat systems. These manuals also include 90 new Animal Templates upon which to base your character!
Other Shard RPG Products: So many more manuals and gaming materials are available! Everything an avid tabletop role-player and game master needs to delve into the world of Dárdünah!

So if you’re ready to experience a gaming world like no other, check out what Shard Studios has created for tabletop role-players on the Shard RPG official website! You’ll most certainly be immersed and amazed by the offerings of the Shard RPG!

Project to Support: Embers Adrift!

Help support one of our team members’ other projects, Embers Adrift! While not yet live, they plan to release later this year and you can join the closed beta now by pre-ordering from embersadrift.com. Check out their newly released video here:

Project to Support: Avatar Express

[Forum post by Vladamir Begemot]

I’m pleased to report that The Avatar Express is clacking away furiously. News is being delivered and we have established systems to deliver it directly to your brain. You can use one of those systems by following us on Twitter at @avatar_express. Even more reliable due to its fully automated nature is joining us on the Discord server. News items are posted there via RSS. Or you can subscribe to RSS directly on the site.

If you run an event, quests, etc, please consider helping out by self reporting. The Shroud community is big, and many things are happening that are never seen by others. With 10k monthly users, we would need a full time staff to track down everything that is happening.

You can fill out the contributor form, message @that_shawn_guy here or post in the Discord server that you would like to help. There is no commitment once signed up, you can post as much or little as you like.

Writing up your own events has several benefits beyond the immediate exposure. It serves as a record for others to see the history of New Britannia as we create it, in an attractive format. Publishing in the Express also has a higher chance than the forums of being seen by search engines and random readers, thus bringing more eyeballs and new players to the game.

It will even make posting in the forums easier! You can upload images to your news item, and then link to those images in your forum post. No more need for 3rd party image hosts!

So if you have something going on in your guild or town, or want to be a Reporter, Cartographer or Historian, please join us!

Resources: Players Helping Players

The official SotA New Player Welcome Forum and the Player Created Resources Forum have the best player created resources for Shroud of the Avatar, whether it’s a Player Written Guide, a Video Walk-through, or a Wiki-type Website.

Visit the official Community Resources page for a complete listing of all things community.

View the full article

04/12/2022 10:44 PM

I'll be hosting a livestream on the Shroud Twitch channel starting at 4pm this Friday 4/15

Chris will be joining the stream as well to talk about the articles released today announcing Richard working on a new game.

I'm planning on talking about a bunch of topics, related to what I've been working on for SotA, and what's next.

So please join me on Friday for a SotA Town Hall style stream!

View the full article

04/09/2022 04:35 AM

Read by Addy

Chapter Three. At Last.

A week prior up the mountain:

Still early in the day, before Lucy Featherbright opened the front door of her cozy farmhouse, even before she had folded back her cozy goose-down quilt, she just plain smiled for the joy of being alive. The beginnings of a glimmer of light across the serene mountain lake peeped in her open window. After finding and dressing in her not–quite-fresh garments and then stuffing a piece of cheese and a not-quite-fresh roll into her pants pocket, she turned to leave the small hut. Her amber eyes twinkled as she swung the heavy door open and leaped down the two steps.

Novian dawn was usually a spectacular showy event in the cool autumn mornings here in the backwoods forests of Jade Mountains. When the first rays popped over the peaks behind the little cabin nestled above the hamlet, Lucy watched the morning tree shadows shorten and gnawed on her dried-out roll and crumbly cheese. Warmth finally started soaking into her chilled skin as she watched the day open before her. The light brought some thin autumn coziness with it. She turned her face to the light, soaking up all the sunshine she could. Already the light was not as strong as it had been in the summer and Lucy was aware that the cold would be upon them soon enough. Sighing, she finished the last bite, then turned to focus on the covered wagon in front of her cottage that she had abandoned half-unloaded in an exhaustion-fueled arrival.

Last night she had let Torgin’s furry companion off its leash after she had finished maneuvering the little wagon up the steep mountain path. The cat quickly and silently disappeared into the nearby forest. Lucy was used to this; Kitty had done so every time she arrived at the farm. Now upon waking, she realized her twin brother’s large snowy lynx had not yet returned from its nightly stalking in the woods.

“Huh,” she snorted to herself. “Go figure.” A pry bar leaned nearby, and she soon started prying at the closest barrel and scooped a couple salted fish out when it opened, their red and blue colours sparkling in the early morning light.

Hoping to entice the beloved pet out of the nearby trees, she sang out, “Here Kitty Kitty,” shaking the wet and iridescent fish she had picked out for the large snowy white lynx. Early autumn had not completely changed Kitty’s coat to the more subtle colours of winter and some of the dark streaks were still visible in her sleek coat. It made Kitty nearly invisible in the wild.

In the past, when Torgin had left Kitty with Lucy, the suspicious feline often liked to watch the lake below from just past the edge of the tree line near the cliff. But this morning, Kitty was not there nor at her doorstep like Lucy expected. Not at the edge of the forest in the tree line. Kitty was not in the corral annoying the new colt, nor the orchard, nor the garden.

When Oscar arrived she made him help her search instead of working with the animals. Not even her hired hand had seen the wildcat. Kitty was not at the little farm at all.

There were many places that Kitty could be found, but she could also disappear at will, it seemed. So, Lucy shrugged and set the fishes near the front door where Kitty would find them when she came back from whatever she was doing, then she kept unpacking from her recent trip to Jade Valley. The Cabalists had caused quite a stir there and Lucy was still disappointed that the artifact she hunted had disappeared again with barely a whisper. Well, at least Phlebus was working his way through all the tomes on the subject back in Central Brittany. Lucy was certain Phlebus would find the trail eventually. He was thorough. And motivated. The little-known magic artifact book appeared to fascinate him, too.

She didn’t much notice the passage of time until the sun dipped behind the mountain. The air suddenly chilled and Lucy, chopping wood, shivered. She decided she would finish her task upon the morrow. Those abandoned, uneaten fish were rather bloated and slimy now and quite vile smelling as well. With a shovel and holding her breath, Lucy scooped them up and carried them over to the fire she liked to keep going nearby. In she tossed some sage and a little rosemary to keep the biting insects away and disguise the smell of the rotting fish burning. She took a seat on one of the massive wooden chairs near the fire and poked at the coals to stir them to action. The fish burnt with stunning flashes of red and blue. Eventually they crumbled to ash as she sat smoking her long pipe while staring into the flames long into the evening.

By morning, Kitty had still not reappeared, and Lucy was starting to think about what Torgin would do if Kitty were still missing when he returned. Shrugging and going back to her task, she at first assumed Kitty was nearby, and she gave the topic very little thought. In the end, the next day Lucy gathered up a few hides to trade in town; she would take a quick look around in case Kitty had wandered down to the merchants or to check out the fishing vessels. Lucy assumed that Kitty would reappear after whatever curious thing that had caught the large feline’s attention was devoured or became boring. Other than the merchant, Richard, who stayed late and haggled with her over the hides but took them in the end for a fair price, she didn’t see anyone else out and about in town. She also didn’t see her lynx anywhere and so she climbed steadily back up the mountain to her home before the sun fell. Her days were filled with emptying the overstuffed wagon, chopping wood, and baking. Kitty still didn’t come back. Now Lucy was worried. This was not like Kitty. It was time for action.

Lucy sent her farm hand Oscar to the village with a scribbled note addressed to her friend Zyrina in Jade Gardens asking for help to find Kitty. Zyrina was the best tracker that Lucy knew. There was no telling how far the lynx had travelled, and Lucy was sure that Torgin would not accept that Lucy didn’t do anything to find his companion. Lucy was getting a little more anxious about the missing pet and knew how wide the area was that Kitty could travel in a short time. Maybe Kitty went looking for Torgin. Oh, this was bad. Very very bad, and Lucy wanted to avoid seeing Torgin lose his temper if she could. Reinforcements were on the way because Lucy trusted Zyrina would come help. That calmed her down a little.

A few days later, just outside Jade Mountains on the top of the cliff overlooking the seaport below that connected the west island with the center island of the Mistrendur, she stood with her spyglass out. Lucy could see that the Sea Byrd’s flag was still flapping in the wind down at the pier at the ocean shoreline. The ship had stayed in anchorage for the entire time Lucy had laboriously climbed up from the dock to her small home in the backwoods of Jade Mountains and settled in. It must have been waiting on a passenger, or maybe it had repairs to do. Lucy was sure it would not be there for much longer though. She wondered if Kitty had gone back to the ship for some reason.

This morning was shaping up to be another clear and warm day and she had much to accomplish before Zyrina arrived. Lucy had hardly seen anyone except her farmhand since her return and a good cup of tea with the locals sounded like a perfect way to catch up with the news while she waited for Zyrina, including asking if anyone had seen Kitty wandering around. Maybe someone in the hamlet below had seen Kitty, and she could resupply the farm after her long absence, too. Gossip was the grease of every small holding, and this one was no different. Surely someone would have noticed Kitty’s presence.

Later in the day when her chores were done, after she had planned for Oscar to stay on while she was away again, she flipped her hair out of the way after changing to town clothes and hitched up her backpack. Climbing down the mountainside was by far Lucy’s favorite walk no matter the season. Though coming back up left her breathless, letting her body flow down the mountain felt like skiing down on snow even though it was early autumn, and she wore boots today instead of skis. Lucy didn’t know how far Torgin’s pet had wandered in the last week, so this might take a few days of looking. The fire was out, and the colt had several days of feed and a good supply of fresh water. Oscar would check in every day and keep the place going for her. He was a reliable farm help who she enjoyed bossing around. He didn’t say much except ‘’As you wish” and that was comforting in a way Lucy didn’t quite understand. Lucy left one final message with Oscar in case Zyrina came straight to the farm.

*

This morning in the hamlet:

At the outdoor seating area with the lakeside open to view in front of her, Fiona Thatcher looked across the water and saw an air balloon circling to land up on Central Mountain. There would be custom today as explorers came to the lake to hear the stories from the locals about the goings-on in the lake that night years ago. She did nothing to dissuade the rumors but also had no stories to tell. She had not been in the small hamlet when the event took place and always suggested they ask the old wagon drover as he was the one involved. No, he didn’t work anymore, he was far older than that. No, he wasn’t in town today that she knew of. The answers were automatic. Giving the long countertop an extra hard rub, Fiona gathered up the rag she was swabbing with and tossed it into the nearby bucket of hot soapy water. She didn’t like to clean up after the sloppy sailors who frequented the lakeshore crafting pavilion from the docks nearby, but it was honest work, and she was intent on honoring her parent’s memory by continuing to support herself and her little brother Oscar. Upon becoming adults and being released from the orphanage that raised them, Oscar and Fiona chose the farthest point from Old Riverside in Jade Gardens that they could afford to travel, and one where they knew one person.

Lucy Featherbright. The Avatar, who had rescued them from certain death when they were far too small to protect themselves, lived here. The hamlet of Jade Mountains suited them just fine and even the balloon ride here was an exhilarating and stunning experience for the young people who had never been outside the orphanage. There wasn’t much of the constant danger from inexperience on the open road in a balloon journey either. Though they still learned a valuable lesson about trusting strangers after one of the many stops when someone they thought was a new friend disembarked with some of their few valuables before they noticed they’d gone missing.

When they first arrived at Jade Mountains, there wasn’t much work available for the young brother and sister but both Oscar and Fiona were sturdy, healthy, and had a clear understanding that they needed to earn their keep. With their motivation and their even tempers they soon both found employment and lodgings. Oscar got work at her farm right away and Lucy made sure Fiona had employment close to their home for a fair wage, enough that with her tips and his earnings they managed to keep themselves without any handouts. She could see the small charcoal drawing their parents (before the orphanage when everything changed) commissioned of the two of them hanging behind the counter. Since she spent most of her day here, she kept it with her. It was the only thing she had from the time before. Old Riverside no longer existed, and their parents were gone too.

She shook her head and spoke sternly to herself, “No musing, Miss. It’s looking forward only, remember?” And with that she started whistling as she ran up the few steps to the open-air cooking area.

Upstairs in the pavilion was far more sedate and comfortable seating but the farmers and dockworkers around these parts preferred a seat around the campfire overlooking the water, or maybe at the long countertop if they were feeling especially spruced up. She gave the fish stew another stir with her big wooden spoon before starting on the pile of dirty dishes.

She was glad to have a job at all, so she stirred the soup and sighed, enjoying the view of the lake in front of her while she listened to the gossip of the nearby residents sipping their beverages.

Catching a flicker of light reflect up the mountain beside the lake she turned. Shading her eyes with one hand, she set the wooden spoon down near the pot and used her other hand to add to the shade. She could see Lucy Featherbright running down the mountain at full tilt. Even from this distance Fiona could see that it was her friend. This was a welcome sight. She had heard from Oscar that Lucy disembarked from the Sea Byrd last week when it arrived at the docks at the seashore below this mountain town. He had been working for one of the taverns near the docks at the seashore off and on, too. Even if she wasn’t very happy with his choice to spend more time around sailors and pirates, the money he got in tips more than soothed her qualms (and fixed the pail and bought the cotton to make a warmer blanket). Then, a couple days ago, he had come down from Lucy’s farm with that letter that Richard the merchant saw him send with the post. Fiona knew Lucy would be brimming with fresh gossip from far away. She smiled and gave a wave. Lucy waved back and continued toward the local merchants as Fiona knew she would. Jessica and Richard would be glad for the business. Lucy would stop by and visit with Fiona later; she always came for tea after securing supplies with the merchants. The heavy kettle Fiona swung over the fire would boil before Lucy arrived and the tea would be piping hot, just like the gossip.

A few of the locals wandered into the hamlet’s crafting spot after their workday to do repairs and Fiona served their food and drink and gossiped among them while she waited to catch up with her friend. The big bonfire by the lake was a natural place to visit, especially for those who liked being outdoors instead of in an enclosed area. Fiona’s attention was diverted by the needs of her scattered patrons, so it didn’t seem as if much time had passed at all until Lucy strode over to the firepit where Fiona stood, handing out ales and stews to a couple of travelers. Thankfully, Lucy waited until the food and drink were in the hands of the customers before Fiona got one of those big bear hugs Lucy was famous for. Plopping down on an empty nearby bench, Fiona pulled Lucy down to sit beside her.

“Have you seen my Kitty?” Lucy urgently blurted.

“How’s Oscar?” Fiona asked anxiously at the same time, hoping his cough had subsided.

“Staying up at my farm while I’m gone.”

“No. There’ve been no strays here.”

“You never ask about Oscar, what’s up?”

“Where are you going?”

They both burst out laughing and had just taken a breath in anticipation of enjoying a good catch-up session, when the one of the sailors got up to leave and made some loud noise or other. Lucy had been looking down at the fire but when she raised her eyes to see what the noise was that startled her, past the noisemakers on the pier, she saw Zyrina securing a small boat along the wooden plank walkway stretching across the water.

With a bellowed, “Yes!” she jumped up and ran to greet her friend who had rowed up to the shore in a small vessel with neither her nor Fiona noticing.

“You made it!” Lucy grinned.

“Yes, and Lily Byrd will be joining us, I think. If she got my messages, that is.” Zyrina answered after the bear hug that Lucy bestowed upon her.

After a quick introduction, Fiona left to fetch a bowl of warm stew and an ale for the newcomer, as she looked worn out and parched. Then, with a nod to Lucy, Fiona went back to her job serving the next wave of those who were starting to come in for a bowl and a brew, both from the balloon which had finally landed (generally she directed these folks upstairs to the comfortable seating there) and the locals after a day of fishing and logging (who liked to drink and eat in the open near the water and away from the building itself). She threw a promise to sit down when she could take another break over her shoulder as she turned to serve the newcomers.

*

Lucy was talking a mile a minute and Zyrina was blowing on her still too hot meal when I arrived, striding across the wooden pier. Long before one of them looked over toward the boardwalk I watched them as I got closer. This time, it was Zyrina’s turn to yelp in greeting and run to meet me. Then, after the infamous Lucy bear hug, we three old friends gathered together by the fire.

After Lucy finished her story of gathering supplies for her farm, and since Zyrina was still eating and obviously not going to stop, I sat between them and began chatting about my journey here on one of the newfangled air balloons which landed at a higher mountainous area near the lake. Flying through the air was exhilarating and I only frightened the balloonist a couple of times when my screams got away from me. I felt justified because on most occasions I was able to stifle them and just clenched my hands far too tightly instead. The other passengers appreciated my control; it appeared as if they were both experienced balloon travelers.

“After my first fright-filled flight, to Rina’s,” I nodded toward her, “on this one I was beginning to believe the fear was fading a little. Air travel truly is the wave of the future and these balloonists are brilliant. Or maybe my uncle’s medicinal rum, which I had had a few large nips from, kicked in.” I winked and watched Lucy nearly fall off the bench from laughing. Zyrina even chuckled.

Regardless, this last trip was far more interesting because I could open my eyes every now and then and look around, and far easier on our eardrums. I went on to say that Land and Air’s arrival and departure point was not near the hamlet of Jade Mountains, but also found out that’s the closest to the lake that most of the wagons or air balloons would venture. My friends could understand my complaints about how far the walk to the settlement was from the top of the departure point, though.

“At least the balloon crowd knew about a shortcut which was the wooden plank dock across the lake that cut journey’s length considerably. I simply followed the crowd for a while until I spotted you both here by the fire.”

“The pilots wouldn’t talk about it either. They just gave nervous little laughs, but that just made me more determined to find out why so many won’t come closer.” My frustration was obvious. “There’s a story in there somewhere and I’m going to find out what it is. I’m not called sticky-beak for nothing!”

Here Lucy and Fiona exchanged a private look between them, and both had huge grins that they tried to hide. Fiona finished gathering our empties and took my order of another round and a stew.

“The air balloon had touched down just barely long enough to toss the baggage out and lift me and the others over the edge of the railing. Then they were airborne again, the pilot looking around nervously the whole while.”

Shrugging, Zyrina threw in, “Seems like something spooked them in the past?”

Lucy nodded in agreement, with a neutral expression.

“Whatever the fear of the young balloon pilot, I harbour no such qualms. The mountains shone after the rains and the smells were vivid. It was a longish walk down here, but it has refreshed me. Most of the local traffic was not by wagon but by foot, sometimes with small wheelbarrows that people pushed or pulled, so I had lots of company as I walked down the path. None of them would talk about why the arrival point was so far from the hamlet and gave me a wide berth if I pressed them. But here I am, arrived. Finally,” I reported satisfied.

The pretty server, who Lucy introduced as Fiona Thatcher, placed a steaming bowl of stew in front of me with a thick chunk of dark bread and handed me a mug of ale. With a grateful smile, I took the meal from Fiona and set gold coins on her tray for her kindness, before she rushed off to clean up some mess near the counter. The foul mood I had nursed all the way down the mountain and across the lake could not withstand the joyful reunion of my adventurous companions nor the scent of Fiona’s stew. Then, as I became distracted from describing the joys and woes of balloon travel, I gave a sigh, picked up my bowl, and stuck my legs out in front of me with a weary look.

“Okay, What’s this about Kitty? Where is Torgin? What’s Phlebus doing these days? I’m ready for the adventure to begin but I have no idea what is going on. Spill!”

As Zyrina and I tucked into our stew, in her indirect and wandering way, Lucy began again telling the story of the missing snowy lynx. She was anxious that we understood this was not typical behavior from the cat. Kitty didn’t DO this; she didn’t run away. Something was up. Lucy could feel it in her bones.

“We need to find Kitty,” she stuttered shyly after her long speech. Zyrina and I exchanged a meaningful look. Lucy’s bones were ALWAYS right.

“Well, Lucy. I guess we need to find that lynx,” I agreed. Turning to my somber tracking friend I asked, “Rina, do you have any idea where to start? What direction Kitty might have gone?”

Zyrina gave me a patient look and decided to shrug.

Lucy kept hoping that she would see Kitty sauntering up with a large fish grasped in her powerful jaws and was still searching the area thoughtfully; even as we sat and talked, she twisted and turned to see all directions. So, as she nodded in agreement with my words, she also turned hopefully toward Zyrina. Behind Zyrina I could see Fiona, walking by with a full tray in her arms, pause midstride after hearing our chatter and turn to face us.

“Um. I nearly forgot” Fiona interrupted sheepishly, “I think I know where your lynx has gone, Lucy.” She started handing out the mugs.

We all turned as one to stare at Fiona who now was extremely uncomfortable under the intense gaze of so many faces.

“I didn’t realize the kitty you asked about earlier was a snowy lynx.” She shifted the tray and began the tale, “As you know Lucy, Oscar was working down at the sea docks last week when your ship arrived, and he says after you disembarked with your wagon and headed up here to your farm that the Sea Byrd made arrangements for repairs and planned to stay on and gathering supplies and trading with the locals down at the sea docks for a week or so.

When they were finally ready to depart this morning, and just before she sailed, one of the locals who was down at the dock working said he saw a large snowy lynx that walked up the gangplank and jump onto the Sea Byrd after the purser had an altercation with a mage dressed in black obsidian robes, who was finally allowed onboard. He heard Captain Violet order her crew to ignore the lynx. Then, she sent a note over here, in case anyone asked about a large snowy lynx. I didn’t know that that is the Kitty you were talking about before. It’s on the bar over there.” She gestured with a nod of her head to the countertop behind her. Zyrina got up and headed over to pick up the paper.

“That’s my sister’s ship!” I exclaimed, “Captain Violet Green.”

“And? And?” Lucy could not wait any more and blurted out, “Do you know where the Sea Byrd’s next port of call might be?” while tugging on my sleeve.

I shook my head, but Fiona nodded quickly, “Indeed, she is heading for Ironhall.” After a pause she added, “You could ask Finn Beanna in Ironhall, he’d know where she docks, I bet. He’s someone Oscar met while working at the docks before he got farm work. Finn will either be at the dock, or perhaps at one of the Inns called The Broken Dock, I think at a small community called Laketown nearby Ironhall.

Go up to Central area here in Jade Mountain and you will find a wagon up by the town crier that will take you to the ship that goes to Ironhall. When you get to Ironhall then find Laketown…” She nodded her head in the direction that I had arrived, “…up where your balloon landed. Invite Finn for supper with Oscar and me next time he comes this way. Likely he will like that. Like me, he watches who comes and goes in his village and he will want to hear why you came by. Gossip is his trade.”

Glancing at the note left on the bar, Zyrina nodded in agreement. “Yup,” she added, “it says Captain Violet recognized Kitty from your trip here and expects you to collect her from the ship the next time she is back near Jade Mountains.”

Wailing, “I’m not waiting that long; I don’t know when they will be back. We need to go find them.” Lucy lurched over to Fiona, and she gave her friend a big hug. “You’ve just saved us a lot of trouble Fiona. I think that calls for another round, don’t you?”

Fiona’s eyes smiled. “Coming right up!” After delivering her tray of drinks to a table upstairs, she moved smoothly behind the bar and started pulling a fresh jug of ale for the group.

Turning back to the fire and speaking quietly, Lily leaned toward her friend, “So. ‘Rina. Spill. I can see something is bothering you, and Lucy can see it too. Where’s Torgin? Why is Kitty not with him?”

Zyrina leaned in closer to the group on the bench and took a deep breath. “Okay, don’t get mad Lucy but Torgin has gone off after another rumor.”

Lucy blanched, “Wha… alone?”

“No. With Phlebus.” Zyrina shook her head quickly then took a deep breath, “After we arrived in Central Brittany, Torgin left me at Byrd’s Boardinghouse and continued on over to Phlebus’ favorite library at the castle. All this time Phlebus has been looking for information about that little book you all found, Lily. During his search he asked the older librarians in Central Britanny if they had heard about such a book of magic in the past. Only one old librarian knew of it and after getting to know Phlebus a little he shared that he had spoken last year with a stranger who appeared to have had some very intimate knowledge about the contents of the book. Phlebus said it was rumored to have an unknown spell of great significance involving the essence of life itself. It had gone missing during the Fall as far as he had been aware. The old librarian himself had not seen it and even so he hoped it was never found. He explained that there was always more danger in such magic if used with the wrong intent. Phlebus didn’t get much more information than that about the book, and he didn’t pass along his own discoveries because the old bibliosoph didn’t seem like he wanted to know much about the present but he did ask after the stranger who had been enquiring the year before and had been told by the librarian that the scholar had stayed with a bard in Central Brittany; he remembered because they had a long chat about a lute and strings and music scores that had been purchased at Scroda’s shop. That’s where Torgin and I went next.”

We were spellbound.

Zyrina swallowed a gulp of ale then continued in the same low voice, “There was little at Scroda’s that had anything to do with the book but a scrap of paper with the words ‘stolen from us’ and then some unreadable smudges and then ‘The Dragon’s Breath near Jade Valley’ scribbled on it and this…”

5-4-3-2

R

I took the scrap of paper from her and studied it. I couldn’t think what the numbers meant, only that it might be a combination for a lock or chest or something. I handed it to Lucy to look over.

Zyrina took a breath and continued. “Of course, we had to go and try to find River’s Cross near Jade Valley and see what we could learn there. After finding our way through the fog (which is the only time River’s Cross appears – out of the mists – if it appears at all) we found a town burned to the ground, and only one building still standing. The Dragon’s Breath Inn. We did find a lone bartender and sat for a pint and an earful. We talked for a whole evening and eventually learned the tale. River’s Cross is the last known location of the book.” She paused before warning, “It’s gruesome.”

She looked over at Lucy, whose tender heart was well-known and who appeared to shudder a little. “You remember there was a group of mages who stole that artifact from Emrys while he was trying to deliver it to Lord British after the adventure Lily Byrd told us about while she was trying to rescue her friend Arabella during the Treasure of Mystery Island?”

Lucy looked confused and shocked but shook her head slowly looking apprehensive.

With a look of surprise Zyrina went on, “You don’t? Well, Lily can tell you that part later; I heard the whole story from Emrys when we were asking him more about what you found in that treasure chest. It was a small leather-bound book of magic. An artifact from before the Fall. Someone ambushed Emrys and took the book from him before he could return it to the library in Central Britanny. At least he survived the beating he was given. We lost the trail there.”

She nodded at Lucy then over at me, “Then remember we found out a group of mages in that hidden temple under Jade Valley had been using a book of magic to build their temple out of people they had turned to stone in The Stone Dragon? And we interrupted their attempt to turn a human into a dragon?”

I nodded, rapt.

She went on, “We each know that ending. At least one of those mages escaped with the book just minutes before we could capture the survivors. It turns out that one was not alone, and the escaped mages fled to a sleepy little hamlet called River’s Cross that used to be across a covered bridge near Jade Valley. That’s where the Dragon’s Breath is located. They convinced the locals that they were a peace-loving group of magic workers just waiting to make their mark in Novia and meanwhile would treat the locals when they were sick. The mages were welcomed into the community just as many of them started to fall sick and need attention from the mages.

At first, the mages healed the small scrapes and cuts they were presented with and that’s all they did, but then folks slowly started disappearing one by one until the hamlet was nearly empty.”

Lucy squeaked and covered her eyes as if that could stop her from hearing Rina’s story.

Zyrina paused but then went on, “At that point, one night all the mages rose up out of their temple underground and into the Dragon’s Breath Inn for a celebration. The bartender at the Dragon’s Breath heard things then that both shocked and frightened him that night, but he stoically continued to serve the drunken bunch of mages without giving away his dismay. Their COTOS were just as valuable as the next person’s gold, in his view. That view changed.

During all that drinking, those mages did a lot of bragging. The bartender took his time telling of all the things they bragged about, but I’ll summarize for now and tell you the whole tale later: the group of mages had been killing villagers one by one and used their human essence and a spell to brew an ale that they thought would extend their lifespans. That night they started tasting their own mix of kegs they had brewed from the villagers.

It made them feel euphoric; they believed they had succeeded and were proud of it, too. However, most of the villagers were now missing and the remaining few had started whispering among themselves about the mages. The mages were making plans to go to another hamlet and start making another batch of the vile drink. It seemed they believed they had extended their lives and were arguing whether they could expand them even further, and eventually they started to dare each other to do other spells from a little leather-bound book they left on the table while they were playing their drinking games. That night, they got excessively drunk. Too drunk to spell-cast responsibly, let alone spell-casting from that book.”

Fiona had silently moved closer with a tray of drinks and she handed another ale to Zyrina. She took a sip from the fresh ale before resuming, “Blind drunk, while arguing and bragging about their prowess, some of them foolishly conjured one of those spirit dragons from a dragon bone they had dragged up out of their lair and a spell they tried to interpret from that little book. This time they were far too successful. As soon as the spell was cast, the bone burst into flame and then grew before their very eyes into a flaming shape of a full-sized flying dragon. Before anyone could properly end the spell, or even before they realized what they had achieved, the shadow dragon razed nearly the entire village.”

Lucy seemed to be properly horrified. “Like the one we saw nearly materialize in the graveyard at Jade Valley?”

Zyrina nodded and saw me start to squirm a little from trying to sit still during her long speech as she continued, “The important part is this, the bartender saw one mage who hung back and didn’t join the others: a quiet one who kept himself to himself and didn’t drink. During the ruckus after the spell was cast, he picked up the book when the other mages were concentrating on the newly-appeared dragon before the bartender escaped to his hiding hole. The quiet mage grabbed the book and hid it in one of his cloak pockets then quickly faded into the background after putting some kind of protection spell on the Dragon’s Breath. But before he disappeared, a piece of paper dropped out of the little book that the mage didn’t notice, and the bartender picked it up before he fled into his basement to hide.

The bartender missed seeing the brave farmers who came to help fight off the attack and the avatars from as far away as Jade Valley that came to help because he hid in his basement as anyone would do. In the end, the dragon was overcome, but not until the mages who had cast the spell were dead and the hamlet destroyed. The bartender gave the paper to Torgin who brought it to me.”

Zyrina went silent for a moment before looked directly at Lucy, “Torgin has gone after that mage. He returned to the libraries of Central Brittany to find Phlebus and together they were looking all over Novia to hear of whispers and rumors of strange magic. Then, after last winter, he left me a message saying he found something and that they both were heading out to Spindleskog to track that mage who they are now positive had the book when he left River’s Cross.”

In the quiet while we all took a minute to grasp what she was saying, she added “Here is a copy of the paper the mage had dropped.” She handed it to me. It had the same series of numbers on it that was left at Scroda’s but a different letter.

5-4-3-2

C

“ALONE?” Lucy’s voice was shaky as she took the paper from me after I glanced at it. “To Spindleskog?”

Zyrina nodded. “I couldn’t stop him, Lucy. So, I wrote Lily Byrd and asked her to come meet me. I knew we would need help to catch up to him and I knew you would want to know what Torgin was getting into, as well. I’m glad Lily caught up before we left again. I don’t know if Torgin can manage on his own with just Phlebus against a group of rogue mages with a magic book. I know we will have to find him, but let’s find Kitty first, OK? I have a feeling Kitty knows exactly where she is going and maybe that’s where Torgin will be.”

Lucy sighed and nodded. She was left looking at the scrap of paper and comparing it with the other one. It was the same script, and the numbers matched but what was the R and the C? What were the numbers for? A combination? An address in Novia? We were all stumped.

Just then Fiona arrived back at the firepit with another full tray of frothy ales and wine in large mugs and some crunchy salty bits of fried potato as the talk changed back to things of local interest: gossip and tidbits of news from the world outside the small mountain hamlet that didn’t include shadowy mages with magic artifact books.

During the merriment, we came to an agreement: tomorrow we would journey. We made our plan to take a covered wagon from up at the central transportation area to find a ship to Ironhall. Fiona gave us a detailed description of how to find Ironhall that included catching a covered wagon from here to the West Island docks, taking the ferry to the Middle Island dock and from there finding passage to Noreach, Mud, Estgard, and finally Ironhall in the far northwest of Norgard. It would only be a few days travel if we were lucky.

Lucy tried saying West Island and Middle Island fast five times and that started us giggling. I fell over laughing. Tonight, we would laugh and dance around the fire and sing with Fiona until the dark forced Fiona to abandon us and go start her own home fire so that her little brother Oscar would have a warm meal when he finally arrived home from up the mountains.

*

Fiona thought Oscar would have his work cut out for him taking care of their own garden and caring for Lucy’s place since Lucy was obviously leaving again. Lucy always made sure that Oscar was well-paid for his efforts and Oscar preferred to work at Lucy’s farm above all others. Fiona appreciated Oscar being away from the docks and especially the lessons Oscar was learning from Lucy when she had time to teach him about the plants around the mountainside and their medicinal uses.

The extra effort to take care of both places would be a strain on Oscar. Maybe she would advise him to stay up the mountain and she would handle their garden herself. Smiling, Fiona gave a wave and wished Lucy and her new friends the luck of the Titans, not knowing why they travelled, only that under the gaiety, concern from some unnamed danger was giving each of them a grim look in the corners of their eyes and a thoughtful quietness underneath the frantic merriment.

She hoped Lucy would return soon and tell her the whole tale, but she could see that none of them were willing to talk about it tonight. She could hear them still singing around the campfire by the lakeside as she waltzed all the way to her little home just down the lane.

Echoes From the Caverns

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