Greetings traveler,

Welcome to the thirty-third 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.
We're a bit late this month; sorry for that. This month has seen only a handfull of updates, but quite a lot has been done. We've managed to fix some errors in the Forums software that caused private messages that where deleted because of box-overflow to be removed from the index but not actually deleted. Our software expert (J.W. vd Broek; Great Cthulhu on the Forums) managed to get rid of excess messages (thanks JW), which saved us some 45 MB of webspace. Since we where almost out of space, this was a very welcome thing. Forums have also been upgraded to a newer version.
This month's mailinglist is the first one in a long time to have a Close-Up. It's about one of the monsters in the School section.
Enjoy reading.

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

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WHAT'S NEW:

19/07/2003 - added user comments to "The theft of the Holy Horse", "Agmanor's Treasure" and "Burglary in Dobnell" rpg missions (Barracks)

15/07/2003 - new spell in the School: "Instant Artillery"

07/07/2003 - upgraded and debugged Forums

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

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COMING UP:

Some new things for the Archives are still being worked on, among which is the Tinker Rod. Most of it's spells are ready and then only the rod's random-effect-spell-list has to be typed out and uploaded. I think this thing will be ready soon. I'm also working on a new wondrous architecture effect (a permanent area effect in a room; as used in D&D Stronghold Builder's Guidebook).
Three new poems have already been uploaded to the Temple section of the site.
The upgrading of the submission forms has been moved further down the waiting line, to make room for two larger projects. First of all, there is a MUD (multi-user dungeon, for who didn't know that already) in development. That project is done by J.W. vd Broek, our software expert and now mudman. When the java-software is ready, I'll be helping him in creating the actual world. I hope to use Elfstone Setting for that, and therefor, the setting needs some further work. Only a few maps have been drawn so far, so it is time to put some more work in the setting. In the meanwhile, I am also trying to get some MUDding experience. We are also looking for a good server (pref. free) server to run the MUD on. If anyone knows a good (pref. free) MUD-server that still has room, please mail the url to me ( webmaster@alcarin.com ) or J.W. ( gorath99@alcarin.com ).
The second big project that is running, is the development of a mass-combat roleplaying game. It'll probably be named Landlord, although I still need to check if this title already excists. The game is going to be d6 based and is going to be a mixture of roleplaying and strategy. See the Announcements at the Forums for more and up-to-date info on that ( http://www.alcarin.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9 ). I'll be posting new material on the website as the project runs, just to give visitors an idea on what it's going to be and when it's going to be ready. I expect to upload the first material within a week or so.

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CLOSE-UP:

"Brown Forest Scavenger" (School: Monsters)

Preview:
"Brown forest scavengers are nomadic creatures, that travel wide expanses of woodlands in tribes. They usually don't settle anywhere longer than one month. During that month, the scavengers hunt down all the animal life in the area. The scavenger king animates trees which kill unsuspecting woodland creatures. The creatures that escape the trees are hunted down by the scavenger warriors. When the scavengers travel further, they have killed at least 90% of all animal life in an area with a half mile radius.
Brown forest scavengers use magic normally used by druids. It is unknown how these evil creatures, which pose a threat to the forests in which they live, are able to make use of druidic magic. Also considering their fey nature, it is possible that these creatures have not always been the scavengers they are today. Scholars have argued that it must have been neutral or even good-aligned beings in the past.
Brown forest scavengers have no gender. They reproduce by splitting themselves in two. Only the scouts have this ability. It takes a scout a week to perform this act. During this week, the scout eats constantly, but does not visibly gain weigth. At the end of the week, a new scout grows within a minute from the back of the reproducing one. Their backs remain connected until the new scout's body is complete, and then the connection breaks.
The 'offspring' scouts grow into their permanent form within one week, or they remain scouts themselves. They can become any of the three other types of scavengers, filling in the needs of the tribe. It is only possible for a new king to be 'born' when the tribe is large enough to split into two tribes.
Brown forest scavengers speak Sylvan and Common."

This monster is one of a series produced by Jan Willem v.d. Brink for use on alcarin.com and optional inclusion in the mailinglist. Several of this series have been posted completely in the mailinglist. This I will not do for the Brown Forest Scavenger, simply because the mailinglist would become very, very large if I would do so. The page for this evil Fey include stats for 5 monsters: the Scavenger scouts, gatherers, warriors, and kings and Scavenger trees, which are animated by the Scavenger king.
In design, these creatures are similar to the Formians, only Scavengers are fey creatures with druidic spell abilities. There are an equal number of subspecies, a total of 5 (including the Tree for the Scavengers), but the weakest Scavenger is CR 3 and the strongest only CR 8. Comparing that to the Formians, with the weakest CR 1/2 and strongest CR 18, this makes them less usable for wide ranges of party levels in random encounters, but it will probably make it more fun for a party to go after an entire tribe. Afterall, a group of CR3 creatures is still a challenge to a level 8 party (high enough level to take out the leader), but a level 18 party might get bored by having to hack through hordes of CR 1/2 creatures, taking them out like flies. It depends on your playing style of course, you might enjoy slaying hordes of weak creatures with a single spell, but personally I think it makes the weak creatures less interesting. They would almost be like furniture or something like that. Anyway, the monster is a nice creature and well designed; just have a look at it.

Brown Forest Scavenger:
http://www.alcarin.com/school/monsters/brownforest.htm
Monster Section:
http://www.alcarin.com/school/school.htm#monsters

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

"DM-testing-zone"

Welcome you all to the big DM-Testing-Zone! Today we will see if the following people are well fit to one day become the Dungeon Master of an adventurers party.
Today we have: someone who cannot stop throwing Magic Missiles while DM-ing, someone who does not want to DM, someone who has a lousy sense of his setting. Enjoy.

Our first contestant is the DM who cannot stop throwing Magic Missiles at his own party. DM, your party is inside a bar with the presence of an irritating fanatic gnome-tinker druid, a drink-happy fighter Dwarf and a brave human paladin. They have just arrived this bar.
"Okay. Party, an elderly wizard chap enters the bar" the DM says.
"How does he look?" the Dwarf asks.
"Typical wizard. Use your imagination. Hat, staff, you know... just all the stereotypical wizard stuff. He throws 5 Magic Missiles at you in the bar."
"Inside the bar?"
"Yes. He keeps throwing them until you ALL DIE. YOU ALL DIE, PUNY WURMS!!! FEEL THE POWER MANIFESTED IN MY SUPER-NPC BY ME, THE ALL-POWERFULL DM!! WHOEHOEHAHAHA!"
Okay, our first contestant can stop now. He is rated evil enough, though he has not passed since he sound defeated the party-members a bit slower, stretched out over some sort of a story."

Our second contestant is the DM who does not want to DM.
DM, your party is inside a bar with the presence of an irritating fanatic gnome-tinker druid, a drink-happy fighter Dwarf and a brave human paladin. The have just arrived this bar.
"What do I care? I don't want to be here! Get away from me you all!"
"But we want to role-play!"
"We want to role-play, we want to role-play, who am I, your mother? Grow up and get away from me!"
(Throws his dices as a distraction and makes a run for it)
Okay, our second contestant has found a useful way for a DM to get some power over the players with throwing dices at them, although the part of the adventure-story missed here as a whole. He did not pass.

Our final contestant today is the DM with a lousy sense of setting.
DM, your party is inside a bar with the presence of an irritating fanatic gnome-tinker druid, a drink-happy fighter Dwarf and a brave human paladin. The have just arrived this bar.
"Okay. Dwarf, your cell-phone goes off."
"Ehm... I ask... what kind of magic is this?" the Dwarf asks.
"I look at it with great interest" the gnome says.
"Will you trade it for a drink?" the Dwarf asks.
"The barkeeper," the DM continues, "who is none other than George Bush jr., says: "Hey, those mobile phones are not allowed here. Will you put that thing to rest or you will not get any drinks, shorty."
The Dwarf panics but does not understand the mechanical device so he can't turn it us. He takes his axe and slashes the phone numerous times.
"The phone went off," the DM tells. The whole party sighs in relief.
"Too bad you now never will know what your mission was," the DM concludes.
Our final contestant sadly got most of a story, but it was very out of place and pointless. Not one of the DM's past the test today in our new DM testing zone. Do YOU think you can be released upon an adventurer party? Are you evil enough to turn monsters against party-members, hide out after your screen and frighten players simply by throwing dices and writing stuff down with the danger of killing the fruits of their minds; their characters? Then maybe YOU will be the first one to pass the DM testing zone.
(Detour maps are for sale in the front lobby)

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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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