MAY 9, 2002

Cleanup Patch:

We're sorry to have to patch again so soon, but there are some issues that we felt should be taken care of right away.

• Fixed NPC's multi spawning in Grimling Forest.
• Fixed a spawning issue related to the Coldain 10th Ring War.
• Fixed assorted issues with several other zones.
• Fixed a bug that made archery work like Innoruuk's own machine gun.
• Fixed the Petrifier Cockatrice name truncation in Dreadlands.
• Fixed Innoruuk's Chosen name truncation in the Plane of Hate.
• Fixed a memory leak in the animation player.
• Tavee's shoulders effect has been changed to specifically exclude affecting the duration of the Donal's Chestplate timer effect.
• Naki's rings now report the altered casting time properly.
• Most NPCs in the world will now return items that they don't care about. Summoned pets can still be handed anything you like.
• Fixed a bug that was causing GMs to be incomprehensible to players if they did not share a common language on Firiona Vie.
• Fixed a bug that was preventing players from being able to turn off /roleplay on Firiona Vie.
• Fixed a bug that was causing bard song modifiers (such as Instrument/Singing Mastery and Puretone) to break if the combined bonuses went too high.
• Fixed a bug that was causing some quests to think they required a higher faction than they actually did.
• A quest for a new high level Druid spell is now live. (requires Luclin)
• Addressed a balance issue with high end Magician and Necromancer pets by improving them. (Half of this change went live last night but was missed in the previous patch message.)
• Improved many rewards in an overall rebalancing effort of many Luclin encounters. (This went live last night but was missed in the previous patch message.)
• Made stacking changes to allow more spells to stack with Dance of the Blades.

News arrives from Freeport:

The streets of Freeport have been overtaken by greed and turmoil. The conflict between the Dismal Rage and the law-abiding citizens of Freeport has reached a boiling point. New heroes have been called on to aid both sides in the constant power struggle of this city. Numerous guildmasters have advanced the training that is given to all those brave enough to rise from Freeport, either for good or for evil. The Commonlands have also started to see strange new individuals and even stranger creatures. There is also word that the Deathfist Orcs have begun to stockpile supplies for an unknown reason. Citizens knowing the nature of the Deathfist Orcs are preparing themselves for anything.

Late arriving news from Ak'Anon:

It has not been long since two wayward gnomes returned to their home city of Ak'Anon, one empowered with gifts of a Paladin of Brell and the other wielding the dark knowledge of a Shadowknight of Bertoxxulous. Already pupils have flocked to the chapel of the Deep Muses and the mines of the Dark Reflection to learn the secrets and skills these opposing masters possess. Led by their new champions of Brell, the Deep Muses, Gem Cutters, and Eldritch Collective have begun a campaign to exterminate the Dark Reflection from the mines of Ak'Anon and their cherished homeland, the Steamfont Mountains.