Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the third edition of the realmsofgildor.com newsletter.
There is an archive of the previous newsletters in the Townhall and the columns are added to the Town Square, so you can always read it again. This month, I've finally been able to put up some new citizens for the town flash-movie. I've also added a new section to the site: the Wyvern Inn. It used to be part of the town flash-movie and contained only a chatbox; now there is much more.
This newsletter also contains a short story to accompany Wouter's column. This story will be added to the rpg humor archives in the Wyvern Inn (of course you can also just read it below). This month's close-up will be about something from the School. Enjoy.

This letter's content:
1. What's New
2. Coming Up Soon
3. Close-Up
4. Column: Men with a Mission
5. Short Story: Paladin and the Wonderlamp

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WHAT'S NEW:

30/01/2001 - 2 new spells in the School: "Eomund's Impressive Entrance" and "Eomund's Praising Choir"

29/01/2001 - new spell in the School: "Bad Foreign Language Spells"

28/01/2001 - new and resized town-movie; new citizens, corrected some things that gave errors in netscape

22/01/2001 - added description of sections on quicklinks in town as window.status

21/01/2001 - completely renewed the messageboards and integrated them into realmsofgildor.com, changed towncrier scripts

18/01/2001 - replaced the bookshop by the "Rpg & Fantasy Shop", created a new navigation system for the shop and put up links to much more products, named Temple "Temple of Eloria", named School "Yoghurt's School" and named Barracks "Zirnath's Barracks", new song in the Temple: "Many shades of blue and grey"

17/01/2001 - released the completely renewed Wyvern Inn with chat, rpg humor & riddles and games and music, changed town, townhall and gate to reflect these changes

14/01/2001 - new proficiency in the School: "Marksmanship", added section "messageboards" to site statistics, joined the expert gamer's association link exchange (frontpage)

12/01/2001 - new character in the School: "Sensor", changed submit character form and towntalk scripts

10/01/2001 - created a CGI script to deal with all forms on the site, revised all forms (in Townhall, The Gate, Barracks, School and Town Square) to reflect these changes, revised submission rules & privacy policy to reflect the changes in the forms

09/01/2001 - new poem in the Temple: "2001"

06/01/2001 - new poll: "the Wyvern Inn", added most popular site item table to site statistics (Townhall)

05/01/2001 - changed Towncrier script

04/01/2001 - 2 new pages for the Minas Elen Chronicles (in the Temple), created the crpg & fantasy game cheats page and uploaded cheats for Baldur's Gate, Betrayal at Krondor, Betrayal in Antara, Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2 (in the Barracks)

01/01/2001 - changed vote-links, changed updates pages, resetted counter

Visit http://updates.realmsofgildor.com for the latest updates.

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COMING UP:

Hopefully lots of people will submit stuff for the archives, articles, reviews, missions, cheats, rpg humor and lots of other things. Some of my friends have plans to work on some articles for the Town Square. They're not really sure about what to write yet, but it will probably be something about seducing monsters, dealing with fiends or related stuff. I also hope to receive some funny stories and jokes for the new rpg humor archive in the Wyvern Inn.
I'll probably be working on some new items and spells for the archives in the School and maybe another rpg mission for the Barracks. I also plan to work on the Elfstone's Pantheon and I will also add a map of Cemen (one of the 4 empires). I think there'll be some more poetry coming up and a few new pages for the Minas Elen Chronicles. I will also make some story line for the town and the sections, something like there already is above the Wyvern Inn.

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CLOSE-UP:

the Bloodstone (the School: monsters)

Preview:
"Bloodstones are strange magical creatures. They look just like normal stones and can therefore go unnoticed in almost any environment. The only way to tell wether or not a stone is in fact a Bloodstone, is when it moves or when it gets hit by a sharp object.
A bloodstone is capable of movement, in short jumps it can slowly move. It is not very common for them to move fast or make several jumps in a short period of time. Bloodstones are immortal, so why bother to get somewhere quickly?
Something very strange happens when a Bloodstone gets hit by a sharp object. This tell-tale sign is the basis for their name. If the stone is poked with a sword for example, it will bleed and it will bleed a *lot*.
The attacker will notice that the outside of the stone isn't as hard as a normal rock. In fact, it is quite soft. The soft outside is caused by a supply of blood that effectively acts as a cushion and a defensive measure. It protects the hard, but vital inside of the bloodstone very well, both against normal attacks and magic, granting an AC of -3 and 40% magic resistance."

I created this strange creature a while ago for my Elfstone Campaign Setting (also in the School). It is based on some local legends and bad horror movies. The creature is designed for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd edition), but can easily be modified to fit D&D 3rd edition or other rpg's. Full statistics, description, combat, habitat and society are worked out.
The Bloodstone is not a hostile creature, but was rather intended for non-player character purposes. I had one travel with one of the player characters for a while and it proved to be a good help in role-playing. The fun of the creature is that it can create a lot of unexpected situations. Imagine a stone just jumping on top of a rabbit an completely crushing and eating it. Or if a stone would just start talking to a player character. Not to speak of what would happen if a stone would get hit by an arrow that just missed an enemy.
And still, the Bloodstone would make a challenging opponent, considering it's armor class, magic resistance, hitpoints and special defenses. It can also cause a good deal of damage when that would be needed. For stronger parties, a group of Bloodstones and/or spellcasting versions would be a nice idea.

Read more about the Bloodstone in the School: http://school.realmsofgildor.com

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COLUMN: MEN WITH A MISSION
A column by Wouter vd Zandschulp; wouter@realmsofgildor.com

"Party is over without a paladin"

Just take an average party with fighters to slay the monsters for gold, thieves to steal the gold from the fighters, paladins to prevent the thieves to steal the gold from the fighters and gnomes who irritate everyone while they are doing this.
The most difficult position in a party is the one called paladin. He always has to forbid people to do things, but doesn't want to spoil their fun. While he himself knows the best way to have fun is to clean and polish things, the others seem to stubbornly prefer other types of fun, like drinking, fighting and reading comics, all very improper things to do.
Of course the paladin will not allow those things, but wants them to have fun, while they refuse to polish (stubborn!). He has to allow some things he finds doubtful, to prevent them from doing the real bad things named above. So if they want to sacrifice the gnome, he will sometimes have to allow it as a compromise.
Paladin's often are not able to understand the ways of their party-members. Why do they pick pockets instead of flowers? Maybe to prevent the owner of the pocket from hurting himself by falling on his possessions?
Why do they drink a lot of alcohol and act strangely afterwards? To make sick children laugh? But sick children aren't in bars, are they? It's difficult. Why do they always make fun of gnomes? Because they're little, stupid and clumsy? Is that reason to make fun of anyone? Why can't they pretend to like gnome's, just like the paladin himself does?
Maybe the paladin himself is strange. Maybe he should go into a bar, kick everyone around because they are breathing and sell them to be slaves in his own illegal post office, just to fit in.
But no, he won't. He won't because he can't change the one he is, neither as his party-members can. They all just are who they are and that's why they are a party.
And a paladin can fit in perfectly in his own way, as long as he shuts up now and then so he doesn't get slain.

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SHORT STORY: PALADIN AND THE WONDERLAMP
A story by Wouter vd Zandschulp; wouter@realmsofgildor.com

Once, the brave paladin Sensor found a lamp. It was kind of dirty, so Sensor started to polish the lamp, to show the party-members the fun in polishing.
A lot of smoke came out of the lamp, so Sensor quickly threw it on the floor. An other party-member creates water because of his fear of fire and Sensor throws himself on the lamp to protect the others with his own life.
Suddenly a genie comes out and asks irritated: "Say, what are you doing?"
"Look out, sir, you're on fire!" Sensor shouts and starts hitting the genie.
"It's just smoke, part of my act!" the genie shouts angrily. "You get three wishes" he says.
The other party-members get excited.
Sensor says: "Wait, give me time to think."
"Ok," the genie says. "That was your first wish."
"What should I wish for?" Sensor asks to his party members.
"A ring of invisibility! A spell book! A never ending supply of beer!" is called.
"What would be best to help all people?" Sensor asks.
"End world hunger" the genie says. "That was your second wish."
"Wish to make us the best party ever!" the party shouts.
"I wish to end world hunger" Sensor decides.
"That was your third wish" the genie says.
"Is world hunger over?" Sensor asks.
"No, you just got three wishes, I never said I would grant them."
The party members slayed the genie and almost Sensor too, but they still needed him to do the dishes.

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Well, that's it for this month's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it. Reactions to the newsletter can be sent to: mailinglist@realmsofgildor.com

Lord Gildor
"May the stars guide you on your journeys"
http://www.realmsofgildor.com

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