The Cogworts School of Tinkering and Mechanomagic Builds A Better Mousetrap 2013

The brave members of the Qeynos Fire Brigade*

Cogworts School of Tinkering and Mechanomagic Builds A Better Mousetrap, 2013

The explosion rattled the windows of every building along the block. Thick clouds of smoke belched forth from the burning establishment.

Faintly through the raging flames, the words “Cogworts School of Tinkering and Mechanomagic” glowed cherry red on an indium sign. The words “Dormitory 2” seemed to be slowly melting off.

Down the block, the members of the Qeynos Fire Brigade threw on their gear and headed to the correct address without discussion. Apparently, this was a common occurrence. The members of the hydromancy team began conjuring water as soon as they were in range.

Soon, sweat poured down their foreheads and soot stained their garments. They panted for air as they battled the uncommonly powerful blaze. One by one, they exhausted their powers, falling to the ground.

Hours later, the last ember flickered and died. Nothing was left of the second dormitory, or the two dormitories to either side of it.

A white-haired gnome peeked around a lamppost, his receding hairline standing up in tufts.

“Oh dear, oh my. Poor lads! My lasses! Everyone made it out fine, just a bit of property loss this time around, and the insurance assures me the premium hikes will not be too bad. Thank you so much for your prompt response! If you have any need of our services, the members of the Cogworts School will be happy to assist you in any way!”

The entirety of the Qeynos Fire Brigade--brave men and women, one and all--winced and cowered away from the tiny gnome, before taking a collective breath and straightening. The Captain stepped forward and bowed politely.

“Professor Cogworts, thank you, but we have no need of your assistance.” Her voice was raspy from the smoke. “However, you’ll have to find new accommodations for your students until such time as your dormitories can be rebuilt.”

“No fear, no fear! The kind gentleman over at the Lion’s Mane said that we can rent out the rooms there for a miniscule fee. Very miniscule. Just a few thousand platinum, plus we have to promise to get rid of the rat infestation he’s been having. His current rat traps haven’t been working. Nothing seems to work. But it’s not a problem at all! We’re gnomes! We'll figure it out!

“Oh, and we can’t disturb the other guests. Not that we would, oh no! The students would just be studying and doing a little bit--a very minor bit--of tinkering homework in their rooms, you understand. Most of their work happens at the school, in the classrooms, under teacher supervision, of course! Nothing like this EVER happens!” He waved his hands energetically at the smoldering remains of the three buildings.

The Qeynos Fire Brigade valiantly restrained themselves from rolling their eyes. This was the third such call they’d had this month alone. The others had been minor in comparison to this, but still! Even their sole gnomish member sighed and shook her head.

Professor Fulbright Bartholomew Cogworts the Third raised his voice. “ALL RIGHT!” he bellowed, voice much too loud for his minute frame. “STUDENTS! Pack your bags, if you have any left! Line up and march yourselves over to the Lion’s Mane!”

Gnomes of all ages began popping out of the shrubs and from behind nearby homes. They were soot stained and smelled strongly of grease and smoke. It was a wonder none of them had gone up from sheer proximity to the heat, if the smell of oil coming off of some of them was an indication of how greased up they were!

Most had nothing in their hands. A few carried a favorite cog. All had determined expressions on their faces.

It was time for them to build a better mousetrap.



CONTEST RULES


1. ELIGIBILITY: 

Open to any Everquest II player. Must make a gnomish character on the Antonia Bayle server to participate. If you do not have room on your normal account or are from another server, a free account is an acceptable alternative.


2. ENTRY DETAILS:

Contest runs from Thursday, August 8th at 12:01 AM PST - Saturday, August 17 at 11:59 PM PST.

August 8th: Contestants must submit their item lists to Jazabelle via PM on the SOE Message Boards before 11:59 PM PST.

August 9 - 10: Items will be obtained and created by Homes and Tomes.

August 11: At 12:01 AM PST, contestants will receive trustee on the home they are to decorate, and will receive an IN-GAME mail with the address. All addresses will be located within the Lion’s Mane in South Qeynos, and will be the two (2) room inn rooms.

August 17: At 11:59 PM PST, contestants will lose trustee status on the homes they are decorating, and judging will begin.

August 18 - 20: Judging will run from Sunday, August 18 at 12:01 AM PST - Tuesday, August 20 at 11:59 PM PST.

August 21: Winners will be announced on Wednesday, August 21 before 11:59 PM PST.



Each contestant must submit a private message to Jazabelle on the Everquest II message boards.

Each private message must include:

1. The contestant’s Antonia Bayle gnomish character’s full name
2. The contestant’s main character
3. The contestant’s main character’s server

• All materials will be supplied to the contestants.
• All materials must be either Tinkerfest craftables, holiday craftables except Frostfell, or common craftables.
• Each contestant will be provided a budget of 20 platinum to be spent as they wish on rares for rare furniture or dungeon looted furniture for their home.
• All contestants will be provided with a crafted housing expander (+100 house items) for a total of 300 item count on their home.

• Each home must contain at least five (5) unique mousetraps built in the Rube Goldberg style. 
• Each mousetrap must have a book explaining the steps to its process. Books will be provided, and will not count against contestants’ platinum allotment. 
• Each mousetrap must have at least five (5) steps. (Example: The cheese is placed on the pressure plate. When the mouse steps on the pressure plate to eat the cheese, the thermagauge pressuredongle is triggered, which in turn spins the cog that presses the unilateral unwinder. This causes the chains holding the parrot cagerator to unwind, releasing the parrot, which eats the crackers. The crackers are keeping a weight balanced. When the weight is no longer even, the scale tips, and the mouse cagerator is lowered, caging the mouse.) The more detail to your explanation, the better! 
• Each home must have, in addition to the five (5) mousetraps, at least two (2) other Rube Goldberg machines fit for dorm life. (Think a Norrathian style gnomish toaster, a Norrathian style gnomish Ramen maker, a Norrathian style automated quill inker for homework...) 
• Each of the two other machines must also have five (5) steps from start to finished product. 

3. JUDGING DETAILS:

All eligible entries will be judged by a committee from Homes and Tomes. Judging will be based on the following criteria: one fourth (1/4) complexity of machines; one fourth (1/4) criteria (fulfillment of); one fourth (1/4) creativity; one fourth (1/4) catching of mice (machine functionality). Individual results will not be released.


4. PRIZES:

The decorator with the most gnomish entry from all eligible entries will win the Cogworts School of Tinkering and Mechanomagic Grand Prize, with four (4) runner-up prizes given to the players whose entries are ranked #2 - #5.

One (1) Grand Prize: A fully decorated home of the contestant’s choice, decorated and designed by members of Homes and Tomes, and one (1) commemorative player written book with a copy of the contestant’s machine submissions.

If the winning contestant is on another server, the contestant is responsible for obtaining all materials on the manifest list, so that a member of Homes and Tomes may travel to their server and load the home’s layout for the contestant.

Four (4) Runner-Up Prizes: One (1) commemorative player written book with a copy of the contestant’s machine submissions and either one (1) Tinkerer’s Shop Essentials or one (1) Tinkerer’s Bedroom Essentials. If the contestant is on another server, the contestant is responsible for obtaining a blank notebook so that their machine submissions may be copied over into it. Alternatively, they may choose to copy the machine submissions over themselves.


5. PRIZE MISCELLANY:

All homes will have screenshots posted at the Homes and Tomes Event Forums at http://homesandtomes.com.

A copy of the machine description books will be placed in the Norrathian Research Library, and will be provided to each of the judges in a commemorative player written book.

Any and all unspecified expenses/costs in conjunction with participation in this Contest and/or acceptance or use of a prize are a winner’s sole responsibility. In the event that a prize item is unavailable for any reason, the Cogworts School of Tinkering and Mechanomagic Build A Better Mousetrap 2013 committee reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to substitute an item of equal/greater value. Prize must be accepted as awarded and is non-transferable. No coin substitutions. Winners will have thirty (30) days to claim their prizes from the character submitted to Jazabelle as their main character. Designing of the Grand Prize will be an open palette with moderate input of the homeowner for the Homes and Tomes decorators to work from.


6. PRIZE CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS:

Winners will be contacted via in-game mail, private messaged to the contestant, and announced on the original contest thread on or before Wednesday, August 21, 2013. Sponsor will save the layout of the Grand Prize for at least sixty (60) days, and encourages the winning contestant to also save the original layout.


7. RIGHTS TO PUBLISH:

If/when the owner of the Grand Prize opts to publish the home on the Housing Leaderboards, the dedication player written book must be kept in a clearly visible location and if/when it reaches the Hall of Fame must donate the Housing Award to the Homes and Tomes guild hall to be showcased.

If the owner of Grand Prize is on a server other than Antonia Bayle, Homes and Tomes shall publish the Antonia Bayle version of the home under the name “Tinkerfest Home for <Contestant’s Name>” and shall place the trophy in Homes and Tomes’ guild hall to be showcased.


8. SPONSORS:

Jazabelle Wra’Eth and Homes and Tomes of Antonia Bayle.

*Many thanks to Anjana Icebloom, Lowgan Alv'Torea, Havanli, Narrel Blaze, Sanaki, Tajar, Talaeren, Taizhar, and Viorna Clematis for your help in modeling for this image; Darkzephyr Vierus, Kurogo Battousai, and Zhadowsee Dragonbane for your help proofreading the introduction and rules; the members of Homes and Tomes for your help putting this contest together.

Equal Treatment For All

Because there seems to be some confusion, I am not talking about EQ2. This post is about EQNext, and Gabor Sziksai's artwork on the front page of https://www.everquestnext.com/. No, I'm not asking them to remove the chainmail bikinis, if they have chainmail bikinis in the game. I'm asking for options. This is my opinion. These are my experiences in games. You are welcome to disagree, but keep it civil.

Gabor Sziksai's artwork is gorgeous. I cannot deny that, and I wish I had even a fraction of his talent. If you haven't looked at the artwork over at https://www.everquestnext.com/, go do so. Like EQNext on Facebook, follow it on Twitter, and do that Google+ thing to get some awesome wallpapers too.

With all of that said...

Really? I mean... really? Can we please get equal treatment here for the men? Why do they get awesome looking full coverage armor? I want to see miniscule codpieces with testicles bursting out the sides, please. Or something. Because the boobshelves just don't do it for me. And if those sexually attracted to women get fanservice with boobshelves for their front-facing braces of missiles, I want banana hammocks that don't cover bulging nutsacks.

Haven't we progressed beyond this yet? I admit, I like to look good in the games I play. And I run around in a corset most of the time, but with my corset, I wear PANTS. The only thing that's showing are my shoulders and a little bit of the top of my chest. I specifically chose the corset that covers my stomach.

The artwork is perpetuating the stereotype of the female in games.

Female characters are usually seen very few ways.

1) You're a man playing a woman to try and con people into giving you free stuff.

2) You're a woman playing a woman to get free stuff.

Everyone likes to give free stuff when you show a little T&A.

Everyone knows if you aren't playing to get free stuff, you're going to play a male character.

It doesn't matter that you could be a woman playing a woman simply because you're more comfortable playing your own sex. Everyone knows women don't do that. Real women who play the game without trying to get loot for free play male characters. The fact that women in games are so often oversexed means that you're regarded as a loot-seeking whore whether you are one or not. The miniscule bikinis don't help matters one bit.

And while I have nothing against those who want to dress their avatars in little bits of nothing (and I have been known to dress my character in a little bit of nothing when the mood hits), I certainly hope there's the option to dress my character in something with more coverage. The males' armor is fantastic. I hope there's something just as fantastic and nearly identical for the women.

While on the topic of women, I noticed their musculature. Carting around those braces of missiles certainly has been good for their abdominal muscles! Hopefully EQN will include a breast slider... so that we can slide those puppies DOWN. Not all of us want to look like escapees from a breast implant advertisement.

So, yes. Gabor Sziksai, your artwork is gorgeous, and I will download the hell out of it when it's revealed.

But by anything you consider holy, please don't let the dark elf reach over her head. Or everyone's getting a free peep show.

Help Jazabelle Get to SoE Live!

Don't feel like reading? Input L40C-UYGB-NANQ-L95X-VEM0 to receive $20 off your registration for SoE Live! And those are zeros, not the letter O!

Want to help Jazabelle get to SoE Live while giving your friends a discount? Give your friends the bit.ly link http://www.bit.ly/jaz-soelive so that they too can get $20 off of their SoE Live registration!

So I've been a fan of SoE games since...

Well, let's be honest. The first time I saw EQ2, I was not a fan. The graphics were turned down low, and everyone knows what the characters look like at low graphics--Play-doh and crayon, if you're being generous. This was back in EQ2's beta phase (or maybe it was a little after it came out? My memory is a little fuzzy on exact dates), when the intro involving the boat existed. I couldn't stand it. Turning up the graphics wasn't an option. Even on my then-boyfriend's high-middle-of-the-line computer, anything higher than low graphics meant choke city.

Fast forward one year. At the end of 2005, I picked up EQ2 at the urging of a friend. He lured me in with housing. At that point, I'd discovered housing in SWG. With the encouragement of, "The housing in EQ2 is a lot like SWG's, except you don't have to find a plot to put down your house, and you don't have to worry about your house being destroyed if your rent expires," I bought the game.

And here we are now.

I have yet to go to a single SoE Live. There was one year when I was in Las Vegas at the same time as Fan Faire, back when it was Fan Faire. That was the first year that I found out that Fan Faire existed. I came back from Vegas and was chatting about it in guild. Someone asked me what I'd gotten from Fan Faire. "Fan Faire?" I asked. "What's that?"

Since that day, I've been determined to go to Fan Faire. When it changed to SoE Live, I was still determined to go to Fan Faire. ...oh fine. SoE Live. I was determined to go to SoE Live! Yet year after year, things came up to keep me from going.

I can't remember everything that's happened to keep me away, but I can definitely remember starting five years ago.

• Five years ago, I was working as a teacher's assistant and couldn't get the time off.
• Four years ago, two little kittens came into my life and required care.
• Three years ago, the garage needed to be redone.
• Two years ago, migraines, exhaustion, and a need to replenish funds kept me home.
• Last year, four more little kittens came into my life. These needed 'round the clock care.
• This year, the pipes put in in 1920 finally decided to give up the ghost. We have mud and roots in the line. We need to get permits from the city so that we can dig up the alley in order to replace the pipes all the way out to the city's main. It's an expensive job.

The only way I can get to SoE Live this year will be if at least 15 people are willing to use the below code to receive $20 off their SoE Live registration fee.

So if you'd like to help Jazabelle get to SoE Live so that you can meet her in person (It's not really all that special to meet her in person, but hey, I've gotta offer some sort of incentive here) and you want to receive $20 off of your SoE Live registration fee, input the code L40C-UYGB-NANQ-L95X-VEM0 when registering for your SoE Live tickets. Those are zeros, not the letter O!

If you personally don't want to go to SoE Live, feel free to pass on either the code or the bit.ly link http://bit.ly/jaz-soelive to those you think might be interested.

Hey, $20 off is a pretty good deal!

A Strange Package

There was a strange package on my porch.

Oh hey look, it's my EQ2 Chains of Eternity Poster!
Woooooooooooo!

I need to get a frame for it.
Someone signed Firiona's tatas!

Who YOU Callin' Casual?

There is a misconception floating around that decorators are casual players.

It's true that a lot of us aren't as interested in combat. Some of us may have never been on a raid before, and there are just as many of us who don't have capped level combat characters as there are those of us who do.

And yet, decorators tend to be some of the most hardcore players. Yes, you heard me correctly. Decorators tend to be some of the most hardcore players.

Let me repeat that in case you missed it.

Decorators tend to be some of the most hardcore players.

Not all of us raid. Not all of us roleplay. But all of us spend hours and hours and hours and hours lining things up just right. We go short on sleep to adjust a fireplace just where we want it. We craft, quest, raid, and writ endlessly to obtain the items we want for our homes. If we don't raid, we pay raiders for what we want. We farm tirelessly for materials during holidays--and EQ2 has a lot of holidays!

Decorators (from what I have observed) spend the most SC out of any other group of players. We buy houses. We buy furniture. We buy home expanders. We buy more houses. We buy more expanders. We buy character slots to host characters specifically for the names of house zones. My character list is full of them. Hello, Library, Town, Hallway, and Abode! We buy appearance armor not only for ourselves, but for mannequins to place in our homes, or to dress our guild hall guards with.

We spend anywhere from a few hours to a few months on a single zone in the game--the house zone we are working on. Have you ever heard a raider say, "Yeah, it took us weeks to down XYZ mob?" Guess what? It took a decorator months to get a house ready for publication, and a raider will likely only spend a few hours a week raiding. So their weeks turn out to be less than 24 hours of play (Yes, I know that they can spend longer than that getting a raid down, but for the most part, I'd say 24 hours is a safe average). To put that into perspective, I spent four hours working on the grand staircase in Blazewolf's hall. Four hours. On a staircase. And I'm fast at using the circle tool. I shudder to think of how long it would take anyone else.

Let's also consider the time to gather materials for a house. It's true that we have guild harvesters, a pack pony, and a goblin. But sometimes you need more. My dojo alone (the Homes and Tomes Credit Union) took 23 eucalyptus lumber and 30 brellium ore! It's a tiny little space used exclusively for holding special harvests and apprentices.

I took Jazabelle, grabbed a harvesting potion, and spent about three hours harvesting eucalyptus. Brellium took another three hours. That's six hours of harvesting just to obtain the materials for furniture for a tiny space (and I'll admit I came out of there with extra eucalyptus and brellium, but we can always use more rares in a crafting and decorating guild).

So the next time you think of a decorator as casual, think again. I've spent on average of 120 hours per house I build. That's a long time.

Decorating is hardcore.

What Is It Like?

I was chatting with a friend in another guild late last year. She's a decorator (of course), and she's in a hardcore RP guild.

"What's it like?" she asked me wistfully as we each engaged in our respective play of choice for the evening, she at some tavern somewhere, while I meticulously aligned tiles in one of my warehouses.

"What's what like?" I resized the tiles and stacked them again, trying to neatly fit the maximum number of tiles in the minimum amount of space.

"What's it like being in the only decorating guild around?"

I was quick to reassure her that Homes and Tomes isn't the only decorating guild around. There are others. Homes and Tomes just happens to be one of the largest, with a member list that spans servers.

I am asked this question in various way rather regularly. Sometimes it's someone who wants to know what the guild is like because they're interested in joining. Other times, it's someone who wants to start up their own decorating guild, but they aren't sure if they want to invest the time and effort. Still other times, they're people like my friend--wistfully looking in, dreaming of life in a guild where saying "How many times the scale do you move a tile to line them up perfectly?" isn't met with confused silence.

Sometimes I get a variation of the question that focuses on me instead. "What's it like leading the only decorating guild around?" I had someone ask earlier this week. Once again, I assured them that Homes and Tomes isn't the only decorating guild around. And then I had to explain that it's work.

Like running any other guild, running a decorating guild is work. You are responsible for ensuring that there are no conflicts of personality within the guild. You are responsible for the people you promote to officer. You are responsible for the events that your guild runs, even if you have no hand in organizing them. Your guild's name is on the tag, and you need to make sure it's represented properly.

In some ways, running a decorating guild is easier than running other types of guilds. For the most part, decorators tend to be soloers--decorating is a solo playstyle. While you can (and most of us do!) engage in conversation while decorating, the act of decorating itself is entirely single player.

Decorators also tend to be self-starters. We're a group who has to come up with our own ideas, find the materials to go with our ideas, and build what we envision. It's more common to hear a decorator say, "Does anyone want to join me for an instance?" instead of hearing the dreaded, "So, is anyone running an instance?" from a follower.

The hardest part of running a decorating guild is the management. We're a guild full of crafters, whose crafting serves the purpose of decorating. Unlike most other crafters, we use all tiers of material constantly. Our harvest depot has a revolving door.

How do you measure who's participating in a decorating guild? You can't go by the number of homes a person has done, or the number of commissions they've taken. You can check the status they've earned and donated, but that's only one small aspect of participating. How about the items they've given to other guildmates? Or when they stop their own projects to give advice to someone else? Add in the fact that Homes and Tomes isn't pure decor, because we also encourage roleplay, and we have a few people whose only interest is combat, and you have a guild that's very hard to administrate for.

Then there's the commission aspect. I'm regularly contacted by people looking to commission a member of the guild to build their home. Over the past two and a half years of the guild's life, numerous individuals have spoken to me about hiring a member of H&T to build their homes. Guild members' mailboxes are full of "So-and-so is looking to hire a decorator" mails that have been sent out to the guild. Once I've sent out the mail, I then have to follow up and find out if the person has been contacted by a decorator.

We finally got around to putting up a commission form on our website to help streamline the process a little, but it's still a lot of followup work.

But let's get back to the original question. So what is it like being in a guild where someone can ask "How many times the scale do you move a tile to line them up perfectly?" and hear the answer, "2 times, unless you're working with the dark or light frozen tiles, or the petrified bone tile"?

It's a place where you're guaranteed to share interests with everyone else. It's a place where you can converse while working on your home. It's a place where the puns flow thickly, and innuendo practically drowns you.

There's very little drama, for which I'm grateful, since we're all easygoing adults.

It's the best feeling in the world. It's home.

D'Morte, D'Ryil, and Freeblood

This post has nothing to do with housing, and only a passing reference to combat. Instead, it focuses on roleplay. More specifically, it focuses on what lore we have about the D'Morte, the D'Ryil, and the Freeblood.

I've been asked or seen people ask for the lore numerous times. I figured I would archive it all here for easy reference and updating as I find more lore hidden in the depths of the vast pit known as The Internet. Additionally, it keeps this lore "safe" just in case the sources of the lore disappear into the ether.

The D'Morte

This was posted by Vhalen on September 6th, 2006, on the old forums. It concerns a D'Morte holiday known as "Libation."

House D'Morte's seeds were sown in EQLive. Early on, pieces of their story began to appear within Neriak, namely, The Lodge of the Dead. Although their story was never fully told, the roots existed. There is a portion of old Neriak that used to hold their original villa and the agents charged with the ongoing hunt of the vampire house could be found.

Although Bloodline Chronicles holds a chapter or two of the saga of House D'Morte, it does not tell all. Unknown to most is the story of the chateau in the land of frost and ice. There rests a chapter of their lives that followed the great escape from Neriak. Only in such a hostile land could some of the D'Morte's hide from the slayers of The Dead.

Over time, the D'Morte's began to embrace their affliction. They even began a family holiday.

"Libation"

This “holiday” is in dedication of the event to which all the D`Morte house was turned into vampires. The typical D`Morte celebration on this day is a gathering in a grand hall they call the blood chamber. Here the elder of the house recites a history of the D`Morte saga, detailing its beginning, its trials, and its current status. During this recitation, lesser minions or prisoners are bled dry. After the recitation the results of the bleeding are imbibed by the D`Morte clan. A grand ball is held afterwards and often rages on until the edge of dawn. To the few "guests" that have gazed upon this site and (un)lived, they refer to this as "The Blood Ball". To House D'Morte, this is "Libation."

The tragic tale of the D'Morte's is related to Mistmoore's origins. That is evident to those that can piece the puzzle together properly. Sometime in the future we will see more pieces to that puzzle appear in the world of Norrath.

The D'Ryil

This is taken from an interview Stratics did with Elizabeth Sigmund, Game Designer II about Neriak.

Stratics: What was the story behind deciding to populate part of Neriak with vampires?

Liz: I'll drop some lore on you guys:

In Darklight Wood were the remnants of the D'Morte clan, mostly the vampires deemed too weak to journey with the rest of the clan. One of those left behind was a vampire named Lazarus D'Ryil. He was not physically powerful, but was skilled in the arts of intrigue, seduction and flattery. The power he craved was social and political.

Once the D'Morte clan was gone, Lazarus decided his best bet at survival would be to find someone stronger to protect him. So, he made contact with the agents of The Dead and agreed to share all he knew of the D'Morte vampires, vampirism in general and Mayong Mistmoore in exchange for a home in Neriak and the rights to sire his own clan.

The Dead and our lady Queen Cristanos have always been looking for new ways to gain power and immortality. They see some of what they are looking for in vampirism. The Queen agreed to Lazarus' proposal, with the one stipulation that his progeny could never number more than twenty and they were subject to the rule of The Dead, meaning that they could be taken for "research" at any time.

Lazarus agreed and he now lives happily ever after in Neriak with his clan.

The Freeblood

There are three "D'Ryil's Letters," parts 1, 2, and 3.

Part 1:

Verilos,

Please read what I have enclosed. I have gone through the notes that were brought to me from Mayong’s library, and I believe that the sections I have highlighted below are the most pertinent to our experiments. Familiarize yourself with these.

… exactly how these runes might fit together. I believe that these are separate from the runes on the inside of the ring, but their significance isn’t immediately apparent.

As an aside, I am still puzzled as to what happened back in the tower. I have pondered the failure, but the reasons to her dramatic transformation elude me. I have turned others of her race, and none have changed the way she did. There is something more to this, something that reacted violently to the gift of vampirism.

Utilizing magic as she does, I wondered at first if she might have entreated herself to a powerful dark force that might have lashed back against anything that could wrest control of its thrall from its grip, since she would become subservient to me. I believe, however, that the possessor would have revealed itself in some manner had this been the case. There was no message of any kind (no changes in voice uttering a warning, no disembodied spirit attempting to threaten me), so I don’t believe this to be the case.

I wonder if she might have been under another sort of protection spell. Perhaps she was attempting to protect herself from the vampirism using a weak warding magic. This is plausible, although I did not feel the presence of a ward, and she had drank from the goblet containing my blood without any signs of difficulty. I suspect that if there were a ward, I would have noticed it immediately.

I believe that there is something else at play here…

… to continue the search for the staff. I despise their incompetence, but they are indeed necessary to complete the task I have before me.

Once again, I must make note of my findings regarding Tserrina. After pondering and researching, I believe that something was different about her blood itself. I recall there being a taste to it, something that I did not recognize. I brushed this off at first as some manner of contamination, that perhaps her dabbling in necromantic or demonic arts had tainted her blood. It seems I should have not been so quick to dismiss that fact.

If indeed her blood was impure, or mixed somehow, then whatever it was that she had infused in her blood was likely the cause of the transformation. I have a few theories as to what this could be, but the truth of the matter is that any discovery I make now is largely moot in regards to her. She is locked in the tower now, and will rot with time. She is no longer my concern, although I believe that I can apply the lessons I’ve learned to a similar experiment. I am interested in how a mixture like this might apply to another stock of blood, such as dragon’s blood. The implications of this are quite intriguing.

I will, however, make sure and look for the same sort of tells, should I choose to take up another bride as such. I do not want to waste more time and resources on another failed venture such as that again.

It’s clear to me that we must locate the notes of Tserrina Sly’Tor as well. She has the other half of the information that Mayong was missing. If we can recover that, then I believe that we can combine the two pieces of research to accomplish our goal of strengthening our bloodline. Send a thrall into the library, and recover the notes of Tserrina.

Do not fail.

Part 2:

To the Esteemed Arelin Holst D’Ryil,

I must write to inform you of our current progress.

As you know, our experiments have been going very well. We’ve been able to extrapolate quite of bit of information from Mayong’s research notes, and I believe that your theories on the outcome of his attempted transformation were quite insightful. It was fortunate for us that we had the information he was missing from Tserrina’s notes.

Several of our experiments, at this point, have been failures – this was expected. We’ve destroyed the majority of the failed experiments, as requested. However, we’ve found that some of the failures have yielded some interesting information as they decay. We’re interested to watch this process, and thus have kept these failures alive, partially for analysis, but admittedly there is a fair amount of amusement in their agonized writhing and cries.

Finding the correct mixture of blood is, as you know, the essence to our experiments here. Too much of the mixture resulted in dramatic transformations that the recipients rarely survived. Too little, and they became ineffective, creating rebellious, angry, weakened vampires. Finding the correct balance has been a difficult endeavor.

One particular experiment, a human male, has proven quite promising, however. Initially, we expected a complete failure with him, as his mixture was only slightly varied from experiments we had tried and failed with. As with the others, he writhed through the night, pleasing us with gurgling screams as he transformed. I myself entered his chamber the following night, prepared for either a wide-eyed, stiffened corpse, or a vicious, drooling, mindless beast. Neither was the case. He looked at me and asked the usual questions, “What happened to me?”, “What have I become?”… the standard list of disbelieving queries we are all used to from new blood. This was promising.

In spite of all of this, I would hesitate from calling this one a success. He seems to lack many of the benefits of our race – his strength does not appear to be that over others of his original stock, he seems to lack any manner of significant regeneration, and, most fatal of all, he does not appear to be subservient to our house as he should be. This was unexpected, and regardless of all his other flaws, makes him quite useless to us on the whole.

I still want to keep him alive for the time being, as there might be more to be to learn from him still. Once he has outlived his usefulness, I will see him destroyed. I am pleased, though, that we are on the verge of success, and that this recent experiment proves this.

I will inform you of our progress once a significant breakthrough has been made.


For the D’Ryil,
Verilos

Part 3:

Alesandra,

I am writing to discuss a very troubling matter, one that is up the utmost importance to our House and family.

It seems that our brother, Aerlin, has acquired some very interesting notes. He was able to gather a tome of research from none other than Mayong himself, which seemed to detail Mayong’s encounter with Tserrina, and notes he took on his attempted, and failed, turning of her. Aerlin then managed to acquire Tserrina’s notes on her own experiments of immortality from the library of Neriak.

His work seemed to point toward something he called the “strengthening of the blood”, a mixing of the research of Mayong and Tserrina. According to my informant, these experiments were largely unsuccessful, although their processes were well thought out. They attempted to turn all manner of races, from the brutish ogres, to the hideous iksar, to the insignificant gnomes. It seems that of all the races, the only ones they were able to have any measure of success with were those of human and elven stock – any others simply died in writhing agony.

Although it appears they have not yet achieved their goal, they met a measure of success with a human male they refer to as “Sarkon”. While he was not what they were hoping for initially, he did survive his experiments and was able to evidently provide them with a wealth of information. Evidently, they found all they needed to know, and were planning to destroy him. That was, until they entered his chamber to find him missing. Sarkon had escaped.

The troubling piece of information here, is that Sarkon escaped during the daylight. I’ll repeat that: Sarkon fled his confinement during full sunlight. While the fools are scrambling to discern how this was possible, the implications of what happened are not to be understated. It appears that Sarkon can walk into the daylight, since no charred remains were found. Whether he had assistance with this act is irrelevant. Sarkon, while D’Ryil, is not subservient to the House as he should be, and could prove to be dangerous to all of the D’Ryil as a whole. He must be found, and ultimately, destroyed.

In the meantime, we must find Aerlin and his laboratory. My informant is not aware of the location of the experiments, but I believe it is of paramount importance to find a way to put a stop to their research before they endanger us any further. We must convene, and contemplate what our next move will be. I will contact you when it is time.

Farewell for now.

- Viktyr D’Ryil

Summary

The D'Ryil (specifically, Aerlin D'Ryil, with help from Verilos D'Ryil) were attempting to strengthen their bloodline. The D'Ryil are weak in comparison, especially considering they were begun by Lazarus D'Ryil, a member of the D'Morte clan so inferior, they left him behind when they left the Darklight Woods.

Their experiments combined the research of Mayong and Tserrina. Unfortunately, all experiements were considered failures. They tried all different races, but only those of Human and Elvish stock survived the transformation. Most deteriorated or were destroyed.

Then came the failure known as Sarkon D'Ryil. While he didn't have the strength or regenerative powers of the D'Ryil vampires, he also apparently didn't feel the need to be subservient to the House. He was slated for destruction, but somehow managed to escape in daylight. (The benefits of being a Freeblood: No subservience, no aversion to daylight, slight regeneration, slight increase in strength.)

Sarkon D'Ryil is the creator of the Freebloods. Our lore on how Freeblood are made is sketchy--in the flight quest for bat form, you bite someone, but the implication is that there could be more to the process than just a simple bite.

Because of the idea of the D'Ryil experimentation, most people tend to create their own take on a vampire and go with it. And also because of the experimentation creation story, having a variety of different styles of vampire for the Freeblood works.