Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the twenty-second 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.
This month has brought us several new items, some of which are quite big. As some of you will have noticed, the Forums have been down for six days. One of the mysql tables, the one that contains the info on where which post should be, became corrupted and couldn't be accessed. The error probably came from a server crash during a post. My apologies to the forum visitors. Because of this forum mess the past week, I have had not time to write a Close-Up. Heh, I'll try to start writing a Close-Up for next month early, maybe I will actually get it finished this time ;-)
Enjoy reading.

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

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WHAT'S NEW:

24/08/2002 - created Geography page and map legend for Kingdom of Cemen, uploaded new map of Cemen (Elfstone Campaign Setting) to the School

14/08/2002 - new custom ruleset in the School: Mass Combat

12/08/2002 - 3 new poems in the Temple: "Stasis", "Light that's darkness" and "Where the Eagles Cry"

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

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COMING UP:

There are quite a lot of new submissions this month. A few of which are part of the big projects that are running. The map of the Kingdom of Cemen and it's Geography/info page are online. The new map of Alcarin (the planet of the Elfstone Campaign Setting) is also online, but I plan to add some more area names to it soon. After that, I'll work on the Alcarin Geography page and expand the info on the City of Arquen. When that's finished, I can begin to work on things like the story of the Elfstones (where the setting gets it's name from) and maybe maps of the other three large realms besides Cemen.
Now the Mass Combat custom ruleset is online, I think I'll be working on a ruleset to keep track of an army's morale and use it in combat situations. When a first version gets ready, I'll post it on the Fantasy & RPG Forum on the Forums.
As for the Forums, I am considering upgrading the forum to the latest version. This will create some very useful new tools for posts, topics and private messages. Furthermore, one of the frequent users is going to run an online campaign on the new User Online Campaigns forum. It will be freeform (just like alcarin.com's official online rpg, the Dunékàr Online RPG). This new campaign, the Broderas Campaign, is starting up and is open to new users at the moment.

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

"Overpowered"

A nervous, modest little man walks around his Inn.
'Limbar's Inn' he calls it, because his name is Limbar. In one of his daring and adventurous moments he dared to call his Inn 'Limbar's Inn', which shows just a little bit more of himself than just 'Inn'.
Rumors have had it all day that a great and mighty adventurers party, just on their way back after defeating terrible monsters who where threatening the city, would come to his very Inn to have a meal. He very much wanted to please these important persons.
He looked outside and almost couldn't believe what was happening... there they really where! Those adventurers he thought about! It was just as if a fantasy-picture came to live, right before his nose. He never saw such a group before.
An old, rumpled man with a beard seemed to be some sort of great magician. Accompanied by a great strong man with a sword and shining armor, a mighty knight of mighty deeds.
And there, a good paladin, a serious Dwarf with all the constitution only a Dwarf possesses... loads of mighty warriors came in. It was a big party with more power than the Inn has had in it with all the years before combined. Very serious they looked down on him. "Good day, sir" a mighty warrior with a sword as big the shine only seemed to make Limbar's leg become weak.
"We have just returned from our dangerous quest and request some means of feeding. We assume your Inn can provide us of those means?" he asks accompanied with a friendly smile.
Limbar looks up from the weapon and asks: "Well... I can give you food... if that's what you meant."
The big and strong warrior smiles.
"Exactly."
All of this remarkable big group find a place at the big table and even though they are quite hungry, they wait patiently until Limbar nervously returns with big plates of porridge.
He's quite clumsy with the plate since they're hot; the paladin friendly helps him with them.
They all eat and sound quite satisfied.
"This is very good" and "Hmmm..." can be heard.
Limbar is very happy the porridge seems to get their approval.
The great magician really seems to like it.
"What if I make it even more porridge, it's really good," he says to the knight next to him. "Since I am such a powerful magician, I just should make the porridge more..."
He casts some sort of spell on the porridge, which now gets bigger than his plate and gets on the table.
"Maybe I should have thought of that..." he says.
Limbar walks back to get a mob to help the wizard clean it up.
"Wait, we are very mighty adventurers, we don't need a mob! Let me just... err... burn this stuff!" the knight shouts, who seems to posses some magic as well.
Before the others can stop him, he burns the porridge, making the tablecloth catch fire.
He tries to make it out by hitting on it with his hand, which only makes the hot porridge get on it and so getting all over the table.
"Wait!" the paladin shouts, when Limbar runs to get something to put the fire out. "That won't be needed, we are mighty and powerful!"
He quickly creates water, which makes the entire table get all wet and covered with water.
"Wait! I should just have made the porridge smaller again!" the magician shouts and makes not only the porridge, but the entire table smaller.
Limbar looks quite shocked.
"Wait!" the knight shouts. "I shall create a new table by taking out this wall and carve it to a table with my mighty sword!"
"Let me call on a modron to clean it all up!"
"I will call on the forces of nature to..."
"I shall go into the village... inside the bank vault... and..."
"If I just hit all others that get in the way of..."
"Wait... a fireball usually does the trick in cases of..."
While all of this shouting to another and some of them getting in personal fights, Limbars eyes get more and more red. His eyebrow gets a strange twitch and his lips start to shake a bit. He rolls up his sleeves slowly and walks to the party members. When they don't react, he takes a chair, breaks of a piece of wood and starts swinging it.
Lots of screaming and breaking of things can be heard from the outside of the Inn, while dust comes from under the door. A bit later a group of very much wounded adventurers get thrown out, all quite ashamed by the defeat.
Ever since a board hangs at Limbar's Inn with the text: 'No overpowered adventurer-party's allowed.'

This story is based on a very fun role-play-evening, thanks to my good friends and the fact that there always is some time and place for is to get a bit chaotic.

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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

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