Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the sixteenth edition of the alcarin.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.
It's been a reasonable busy month for me, but a quiet one for the site. Some new stuff in the School and a cool new webgame in the Wyvern Inn. Another thing is that I have added a link to all items that have been discussed in the Close-Up of this mailinglist, that leads to the Close-Up in question in the mailinglist archive. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to write a Close-Up for this month. The column though has some Close-Up like elements in it this time. There will probably be one again next mont.
Enjoy reading.

This letter's content:
1. What's New
2. Coming Up Soon
3. Column: Men with a Mission

-------
WHAT'S NEW:

26/02/2002 - new webgame in the Wyvern Inn: "Wrath"

25/02/2002 - new forum: "Announcements"

12/02/2002 - created a new poll

11/02/2002 - added links to the Close-Ups in the mailinglists from all items discussed in the Close-Ups

09/02/2002 - new character in the School: Ariana Carpenter

02/02/2002 - new character in the School: Pex, new monster in the School: the "Wrot"

Visit http://www.alcarin.com/townhall/updates.htm for the latest updates.

-------
COMING UP:

Well, the Close-Up links are up and running now, so that's one thing finished. I'm currently working on the Elfstone Pantheon. I've put working on the AD&D version on hold for now. Maybe I'll do that later, but it isn't very important. More important is that I do finish all the descriptions for the deities. And I'm converting all the old stuff to the D&D third edition system. Of course, the second edition stuff will be kept online. Anyway I hope to finish the pantheon somewhere in the coming months. After that, I'll start working on the Elfstone Geography pages.
Furthermore, there may be another Lord of the Rings review coming up and there are also plans for a photo report of a role-playing evening. That's going to be lots of bizarre photos and comments I guess.
On the Forums, the Webnovel "Goiren and the Blackened Blades" is going to enter it's 4th chapter in the coming days and the Dunékàr Online RPG is going to enter a new stage as well.

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

"The impossible task"

A small girl and her mother, her hands filled with groceries, walk on the pavement. Suddenly the mother hears a bike, coming at her child with high speed! As quickly as she can, she drops her groceries and pulls her child away... just in time. The bike runs by it. Instead of yelling or getting mad, the mother looks absolutely dazzled.
People who walk by look at her face and wonder. Her daughter doesn't get it and she starts picking up the groceries, being properly raised and worrying about the candy among it.
Her mother just stares and mumbles softly: "That face..."

Yeah, that face. The face was not to forget. It was like a zombie, or worse. So worried; the eyes were showing weeks without any sleep; it looked like the boy hadn't eaten for weeks either.
All because of worries, because of thoughts without end.

The parents of this boy almost have lost all hope. The teachers cannot do anything about it; the boy isn't thinking about school, that's for sure. Otherwise his grades would not have been that low.
He has just turned into a zombie. He does not look at nice girls passing by, ignores free snacks even. All he does is thinking, pondering and almost breaking his head into two parts.

It happens every month. After a year or so, the parents have to accept it. Once a month, for a day, he is like this. It's like being a werewolf, but than it's a zombie.
The boy had worries in his head his father never had himself. Such a hard time as he seems to have is quite rare.

What is going on inside this boy's head? That's what we would have to know, if we ever want to solve this mystery.
So let's go! We enter the brain (well, it worked in: 'The Cell' didn't it?) and see his thoughts. We see strange titles passing by, but that is it. The boy is completely pre-occupied about this. All memories are locked up somewhere were they won't get into the way.
Idea's come flying by.
What about role-play-classes; my own typical description of all of them?
What about a talk show with role-players?
How about the story of a completely idiotic paladin?
After all those options reasons follow why it wouldn't work. Why it would not be interesting.
Suddenly a enthusiastic plan gets in his head; this could really work! A minute later he thinks: 'I did that last month'.
All his thoughts fly by. We see all kinds of fantasy- and rpg-creatures inside his head.
Chaotic gnomes, jumping on his brain as if it were a trampoline, Orcs, Humans, a Bard that plays a tune which seriously gets in the way of his thinking. Only... no Halflings. But they probably have hidden behind the brain or so, offering to take care of the jumping Gnomes' shoes and stealing them, probably.

Suddenly, all of them get sucked out of the head. The boy empties his head again. New thoughts get in. When we look outside again, he is peaceful once again, sitting before a computer. He looks at something before him, with: 'MEN WITH A MISSION' in big capitals on top of it.

It is a column he has written. Somehow he managed again. He quickly mails it to the webmaster he writes them for. As soon as his computer-screen says: 'Message send' he exhausted falls from his chair on the ground; his parents are used to finding him there once a month, when it's all over again.

And next day, all happy receivers gratefully read the column and happily dispose of them in their trashcan, not at all pestered by the feeling they should thank the writer or so, while another month goes by.

-------
Well, that's it for this month's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it.
Lord Gildor
"May the stars guide you on your journeys"
http://www.alcarin.com

Back to the Notice Board

Home | Submit content | Contact | Legal info | Top of page

This website © Copyright 1999-2011, Arjan Wardekker.
All rights reserved.
All trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.