[ Front Page ]
[ Main News ]
[ Previous News Page ]
[ Next News Page ]

This is our news page, the most regularly updated section of the site, and written by Wdi. Aim to come back here as often as you can :). We aim to include anything of topical or current worth, and event information - such as bash reports. Oh, and don't forget to look at everything else on the site - you could even write to us if you have time...

News

Tuesday 15th February 2000

R - O - C - K - O

New from Rocko - Episode 10 of his MUD life.
In this episode: Cat leaves the oven on with hilarious consequences!

The link can be found above.

Sunday 13th February 2000

SCAVENGER HUNT ANNOUNCED

Next Thursday (17th Febuary) a Scavenger Hunt is to be held instead of the normal mobile bash.

All participating players will be sorcerised and split up into teams and then given a list of items to find from The Land - the first team to get all the listed items wins the competition! PKing will be banned, but apparently stealing will be actively encouraged :-). Wizzes will be on hand if you have any questions.

And look, prizes:

1st place: Each team member receives a free game of their choice and 3000 pts.
2nd place: Each member receives 2000 pts.
3rd place: Each member receives 1000 pts.

A free game of their choice? A copy of MUD2 it is then!

MOBILE BASH

10th February Bash Report

Mathias declared this mobile bash to be an NPK bash, suggesting that bash types are starting to cycle periodically. Of course, mages were banned, but only after a shouter suggested it :-). Also, prizes were to be given away for players killing twenty and fifty mobiles. Some participants have suggested that this was done deliberately to damage the bash as players were more likely to concentrate on the 'easier' kills to secure a high kill total. Also affecting organisation was the free availability of wiz invisibilites - if everyone's invisible, then no-one knows who's saying or doing what. Marlight, bash general, had to work around this and, imposing his authority from the very start :-).

Killing happened at an average-to-slow rate, with early deaths of Callis the sorcerer (to a goblin) and Diesirae the sorcerer (to an ape) affecting morale. We reached 100sv/71mins shortly after Psycopath the spellbinder lost his life to two invis mobiles (referred to as 'two someone') - it turned out that the giants had asked to be turned invisible after the offer went out... This made attempts to kill them obviously much more difficult. Still, we forged ahead and got the mobile survivor count down to 83 with 63 minutes remaining.

Mobiles were being FYIed left, right and center - goblin38 had its value of 2.6k announced after it killed Darkside the warlock. That little pot of gold on legs didn't last long, and players' attentions were turned to the usual suspects of the Evil Wood and pagoda mobiles, all offed by one large team. The caused the SV to almost catch up with the reset timer and things looked hopeful. A small group took out the sealife (and no, I still don't mean to lunch) but then everything stopped and was quiet. Peace, friends.

This led to the worrying 24sv/24mins which prompted a major attack on the giants and goblins of the giant realm. Unfortunately, the giants were still invisible and so a whole bunch of people died to them! Um, Pippin the enchanter, the example :-). And then Heiach the sorcerer and then Rodny the sorcerer... One particular giant (who shall remain nameless, since they don't have names) got to be worth over 3k.

Despite Marlight's best efforts there was a mass exodus to the tearoom, where some bitter folk started to plot to bring down the mobile bash, the government and the price of diesel. Also to be found in the tearoom was that great macro-user, King Sampan the third and ruler of the great gate... Joey, who had been forced to come on as a hero due to Important Issues.

Two giants were killed but more peeps fled to the tearoom to stay. The auto-reset happened with over twenty mobiles still alive and although an extension of 750 seconds was granted a large number of the participants had decided that the bash was a lost cause. This greatly lessened the numbers actively bashing and despite the remaining two giants, the spider and the basilisk all being offed by the few that remained there simply were not enough players out killing for all The Land's unchecked areas to be swept effectively. Sadly, this meant we lost with only four goblins in the giant realm left alive.

So better luck next time then, and congratulations to Marlight anyway - he tried his bestest. And before I forget: Olazabal, Olazabal, Olazabal.

Sunday 6th February 2000

3rd February Bash Report

The only visible wizard at the start of this week's bash, Foddy of archdom, announced that there would be Strange Things going on as the players scrambled into the reset to collect kit and then steal it from each other multiple times.

The first Strange Thing was the 'election' of Ramon the warlock to bash general status with a grand total of zero votes. Don't worry - he did fine :-). The second Strange Thing was an announcement regarding the dwarfs, their realm and how much better they think they are than the rest of us. Well, my word - Rocko certainly wasn't standing for that sort of thing and went off to kill the lot, getting extremely flustered along the way when bash general Ramon had the audacity to ask him if he was actually killing them or not.

The third Strange Thing was the large amount of weapons handed out by the wizzes (who became visible at a suspiciously constant rate through the bash) to all who wanted them. This was good when the weapons were given to those bashing for the common good, but bad when the weapons were given to maniac mini-killers out to annoy.

Slow fight speeds, despite the lack of lag, led us to a slightly worrying situation of 72 mobiles to kill in 56 minutes, but this was soon smashed as the Pagoda and dwarfs were cleared out completely.

38sv/38mins. Ramon took control of the remaining assaults, bringing us to 12sv/13mins, but got, um, distracted after fighting through the giants near the shrine. The killing slowed...

...and then suddenly picked up without warning dropping the SV count to a mere two (zombie9 and a friend)!

Both these mobiles died, we scored 3000 pts and we all lived happily ever after, until the end of the reset, which was eight minutes later, FOD pickers. During this chilltime, someone - I bet it was Joey - moved the reset button to the tearoom. There was no mortal reset...

Saturday 29th January 2000

MOBILE BASH

27th January Bash Report

The players playing in this week's bash were given the choice between having a PK or a non-PK bash by the wizzes present. As you might expect, the majority began singing the praises of the APK way whilst the PKs in The Land demanded that they be allowed to strut their stuff in the bash. It was eventually decided that the bash was to be a 'PK bash'. This sent the killers mad, the midlife to their PPs and the cowardly highlife home. Well, maybe :-).

The bash began, sans general, and before the first ten mobiles were killed the maniac wizzes turned everyone invisible. This sort of messed up the organisation... Few mobiles were killed, but there was a fight or two at the rapids. (Jack the protector killed by someone, someone, two someones and a someone). After time, the invisibilities wore off and Lovely the prelate was elected bash general after much debate (she gave up the post to Pippin later on). The killing picked up a lot.

Back at the ranch, some people were upsetting Firefarter - he attempted to FOD Thwomp the surely innocent necromancer. Of course, the attempt failed...

We reached a point where 37 mobiles remained with 37 minutes of reset time left to kill them in. The giants had hardly been touched and so after much discussion giant1 was summoned to the rapids where a huge crowd assembled but only 20% of the people actually attacked. Maybe the rest of them were conserving their enegery to slag off Firefarter - he really did get a lot of abuse. He tried to FOD Foz with a new enchanter.

The giants were all offed and their prizes taken (this had nothing to do with the lag) leaving only their golbin companions and a few scattered mobiles left alive. The last three cheeky moes were the wolf, bravely attacked by Marlight, Lovely, Lanky and Dissease, the spider, attacked by a great big team of quivering wrecks, and the octopus0 attacked and killed by that most derring of derring-doers, sea-sailor Foz. Thanks Foz :-). +3000!

ROCKO

Wireplay MUD2's resident semi-literate person has a new novel on the shelf, starring himself and a whole bunch of other peeps.

Here it is:
Mission Improbable!

Saturday 22nd January 2000

MAXMAGE EATEN BY EXPENSIVE TURTLE - BASH REPORT RECOVERED

20th January Celebrity Bash Report, with amazingly unlucky Maxmage

An eventful bash, this turned out to be. Started out close to champion level, so went and grabbed some easy t before I started bashing. My first kill was a raven, with the help of Marlight the necro. I then decided to clear the maze of bees, to get the bash off to a quick start - hoping people would start working harder if they saw the sv numbers drop quickly. I was annoyed to discover that some pest had already eaten the honey and nicked the maze t - why can't people leave the honey there in bashes...?

As I left the maze, I saw Rillsong going into the keep, and told him I'd help him if he needed it. I then grabbed the barge and swiped the swan while he dealt with the wyvern (and went and nearly got himself killed by the ogre while he was waiting). By the time the wyvern had died, Olazabal and Seamus had turned up to help with the Keep. We busily hacked our way through spectre, griffin and maiden, then did the keep and shared the treasure out in the Maze. (Ramon also turned up to help halfway through). I had now made champ, so decided to go for the touchstone. Thanks to everybody's help (including Cat the wizard's - thanks!), I survived. I then decided to go and help with a giant - apparently we were meeting in the hall of the cottage...

Or so I thought - in fact, the giant was in there ... and I hadn't slept off the damage the ts had done... oh well. Back to novice. Determined to bounce back from this setback, I went down to the giant's area to pig out on lettuce and get to hero. Despite some run-ins with the bull, I managed to get back up to hero. I then heard someone shout for help with the bull, and arrived just in time to deal the deathblow to the damn thing.

I then hacked a surviving goblin and a chicken that were in the area. By this stage there were only about 15 mobiles left - but they included several giants and the spider. Against my better judgement, I decided to help with the first two giants. Our attack was quickly beaten off, and I mistakenly fled north, straight into another giant! Being very close to death, I had to flee again, only to flee right back to the first two giants. Not wanting to lose points or risk another death, I kept on trying to go south, but the giants were blocking my path...

Desperate to find a way out of this, I suddenly spied the handcart that I had been carrying when I first fled. "Wait a min .. you can enter that thing..." I thought...The giants made no effort to block my progress and I was safely hid in the cart, sleeping off my injuries. However, Karnij the bash-general was obviously not very happy with my cowardice, because he decided to swamp the cart as I slept... I got a close view of an angry Ancient Mighty Force that did NOT want me to see the bottom of the swamp... Now I was desperate to get another kill to lay claim to the 3000 pts of the bash, not realising that non-permanent death doesn't clear your obit for the purposes of bashes (I know, I should have known that. And I call myself an explorer too...). I pestered the hell out of Cat for a kill, and was soon rebuffed. So I went on a hunt for the last remaining mobile - the fox. However, I was beaten to it by a whisker, and missed the kill - but I got the 3k anyway. And with half an hour to spare too - ahh, the warm feeling of a job well done.

Maxmage

Tuesday 18th January 2000

COMING SOON?

Marmite has apparently started a new website at http://www.freespeech.org/mud2

Meanwhile, Seamus is conducting polls on bashes :-).

Sunday 16th January 2000

13th January Celebrity Life Story, with Marlight

Arriving in the Land at around 8 bells, I decided that in preperation for the Bash I would build up a protected persona to a decent level. My reasoning being that this is my first Bash report, and I didn't want any pesky pk distractions while frantically killing mobiles, and taking notes.

So, after a minor killing frenzy, I popped in to the Tearoom a few minutes before nine to see what the menu for the night was. Were we to have another Bash possibly fail due to the distraction of pks? Or were the miscreants to suffer that most final of pk solutions, the feared Finger Of Death?...

Well, the first words I saw in the Tearoom were "non-pk bash". Gandalf confirmed this shortly after by promising that anyone not towing the line would be severely dealt with... After some muttering to myself, I decided that I'd play as Marlight to try and reconcile my recently gained warlock status. The first of a few mistakes that I made.

Well, the Bash reset arrived, and there was the usual start of set lag as around 30 people rushed into the Land to start the kill fest. Well, once we'd all grabbed some of that easy treasure, of course...

After a couple of minutes suggestions for Bash General were taken. I was mentioned, but I quickly declined as I didn't want the quality of the Bash report to suffer ;^) (Although, if you're still reading this, you'll wonder why I didn't accept...) As it turned out, the Bash ended up being a general-free zone.

Anyway, I quickly headed up to Dally Lane and finished off the boar and the stag, after which I headed for some well needed rest. Once I awoke, I noticed that the wizzes were kindly giving the mortals prefixes to indicate their particular accomplishments. After a quick double take, I noticed that Tornado had not actually managed to polish off the draggy in double-quick time, but that he had actually killed off its namesake, the dragon-fly. Kalliss had also been busy, and had stomped the ogre into squishy little ogre bits.

Heading back outdoors I ran into the piglet, who ended up furnishing me with a quick bacon flavoured snack. Licking my lips I headed swampwards and quickly ran into some zombies that frustrated my progress. We stopped to play some cards, but they kept throwing in their hands. After they'd told me we'd be playing for treasure, as well! I decided that I'd been cheated, and sent a few of them back underground where they belonged.

Armitage was also having frustrations of the undead persuasion, and I helped him to finish off a persistent skeleton.

Having lost my track a little, Olazabal soon came up with a good suggestion, and we headed for some quiet places in preperation for taking on the golem. Unfortunately, every time I got to one of them, Tsunami seemed to have beaten me there. Once the confusion was sorted out Olazabal ground the golem into dust, and we shared the fruits of our labours.

Meanwhile, Darknight had been busy showing the goblins who was boss, which was good practice for him for a little later...

Thinking of setting up a keep team I quickly headed back up through the olive grove. On the way I wasn't too careful watching where I was going, and ended up stepping on the scorpion.

At the same time, Charity was feeling fowl, and finished off one or two of our feathered friends. These were quickly followed into the afterlife as she sent the viper hissing from the Land.

Tanis had also been busy, and had somehow managed to get hold of a chainsaw. The olive grove hasn't looked the same, since, and unless I'm mistaken, there's a little less dense forest around since Thursday!

Arriving at the keep to find it strangely empty looking, I headed upstairs to find a team already assembled. After a quick pause for breath, we quickly finished off the griffin and maiden. Having not really done much fighting I left the original team to share out the treasure and headed back into the Land looking for mobiles. (Apologies to the keep team, but I forgot to write your names down. Doh!)

Unfortunately, it was I who was to be a victim as I headed through the back door into the goblin realm. Darknight hadn't quite slaughtered all of the goblins, and around three or four of them started to give me a good beating. At the same time, the lag monster reared it's ugly head. Fearing a screen filled with quickly scrolling messages and ending with "Not Updating Persona" I fled to a safe place lick my wounds, and wonder exactly how I was going to make up the lost points.

Once rested I heard Mrmuscle calling for assistance while he took a walk down into the evil woods. Late, as always, I missed the arranged rendezvous and quickly headed down to the woods to help out. There I found Mrmuscle, Olazabal, Tsunami, Charity, and Tanis finishing off the pesky vampire. I kept away from Tanis, as he was waving his chainsaw around with wild abandon and I feared for my limbs! Fortunately the vampire took the brunt of his attack and died before I could type "kill".

Everybody split up, and as I looked up from my notes I noticed the wraith doing it's best to avenge the death of his close friend the vampire. Unfortunately, he had decided that it was all my fault. A quick shout for help and most of the vampire team returned to finish him off. Thanks guys!

I was then in a mood to improve my mind, so I headed for the pagoda. On the way I ran into a few apes. After taking out their leader I attempted to instigate myself as alpha male. Unfortunately this involved lots of fighting. Once more deciding that retreat was the better part of valour, I fled like a big wuss.

Elsewhere, other people were having a better time of things. Diesirae got a new coat courtesy of the leopard, and Incarnate had shown the ghoul the error of his ways. Enchantia had set up a "rat-on-a-stick" refreshment stand, and Foz, apparently being pursued by "Syl the foz-hunting spellbinder" had spent a few minutes running round draggy isle. Eventually the draggy got tired of trying to make a fuzzy barbecue and headed off to wherever it is that dead dragons go. Som wasn't feeling very peaceful, as the dove found out to it's cost.

Sonic was keeping the dwarfs busy, and also took out the eagle on the way there. Feather in his cap for that one.

Seamus, meanwhile, set off to look for America. On the way he decided he really, really, wanted to be Roy Scheider and took out the shark. Fortunately for Seamus the shark's cello section decided to make a run for it.

Waking up from my much needed slumber, I heard the shout go out for a pagoda team. Arriving at the hut it was quickly and democratically decided that I would lead the way. Thanks, guys!

Everyone started to follow me, and we ran over to the pagoda. On the way in I tripped over the steps in my haste, and a few people were lost outside. That still left about six of us, so we headed off to take out the giant snake.The snake took a bit of a liking to me, and I took a bit of a beating. Tanis, meanwhile, put his chainsaw to good effect and took no hits at all. Maybe I'm just more huggable! Illystryl, Mrmuscle, and Lovely finished the snake off while Tanis rearranged the screens, and I kept dodging the chainsaw.

The shout went up that Foz had made a sucker out of the Octopus. Enchantia decided to diversify and added calamari to her "rat-on-a-stick" stand.

After a short rest we headed off for the tiger, only to find Foz slicing pieces off it already. Enchantia was there also, complete with refreshment stand, and was shortly able to add tiger steak to the menu.

Forgetting where we were I went to sleep, and was shortly regretting not checking the weather conditions. After generously passing on my cold to everyone we split up to sleep off our illnesses. Mrmuscle wrapped me in warm clothing and I was soon on the mend.

The pagoda had emptied out a little after the bustle of activity, leaving myself, Mrmuscle, Niles, and Illystryl. We headed up to the first floor. After a spot of ghostbusting we monkeyed around for a while and before continuing our quest for enlightenment.

The phoenix and the mongoose were waiting for us on the floor above, but were quickly overcome. The pagoda being a no-smoking zone the phoenix went down and stayed down, and the mongoose riki-tiki'd off into the afterlife.

At the end of this enlightening experience there were 4 mobiles left with 14 minutes to go. Easy! Or so we thought.

Discovering that one of the mobiles was a bee hiding out in the maze, off I set. Stumbling around in the maze I passed Seamus, who had had the same idea. A few seconds later the bee buzzed past me and then disappeared. Not wanting to chase it all over the maze a couple of quick summons were attempted. Seamus, meanwhile, had one again had the same idea. As we summoned away it turned out that the bee had buzzed off, and we were down to one mobile with a couple of minutes to go.

Suddenly, disaster struck!

Somebody (who shall remain nameless to avoid any possible recriminations) summoned more mobiles into the Land! We now had 6 mobiles, and only a few minutes to get them in! Which mobiles had been summoned, and where were they??? The game auto-extended to give us about five or six minutes, but would it be long enough?

More frantic shouting took place, and the Land fizzled with magic as the magic users attempted to divine the location's of the re-incarnated mobiles.

The villa became a bustle of activity as it was discovered there was a bit of a mobile party going on. Various magic-users decided to join them and send them back into the afterlife. The dove realised that the Land really wasn't that peaceful, and the thief was shown the penalty for stealing. There was still one mobile to go, and not much time left in which to get it!

A flash of divine inspiration struck, as I checked the location of goblins in the Land. There was one down near the dwellings, and Darknight lived up to his temporary prefix and slaughtered it.

There followed much cheering and general to-do as our reward was bestowed upon us. The tea flowed well into the night as we celebrated the end of a successful bash. (It flowed especially late for myself as I celebrated the return of my warlock status. Won't last long, I'm sure. :)

As always, the celebrations were tinged with sadness as we remembered those who had given up their lives in the name of a successful Bash:

Firefarter lost his magic. Shortly after he lost his guardian as he was incinerated by the fickle touchstone. He fell one more as the bull saw red and finished him off with the help of a passing goblin.

Nobby decided to play pass the uranium. As he forgot to ask anybody else to join in, he succumbed to the inevitable radiation sickness. Being a busy kind of guy, he didn't let this get him down and valiantly attacked the vampire. The vampire added another protector to his obit list. Still feeling up to a bit of a rumble, Nobby then went on to hassle the man. The man was having none of this and sent him into the afterlife twice. All of this gives Nobby this week's trophy for most protector's lost during a Bash. ;^)

Infinite gave her life attempting to cut three giants down to size.

Tornado also gave his life attempting to rid the land of giants.

And Syl finally gave up his foz-hunt (must teach the wizzes how to type fox ;^) and had a bit of a cow. Two of them ended his life.

Thanks to Gandalf, Cat, and, towards the end, Karya, for running an excellent Bash.

More thanks to all the persona who helped to make it a successful Bash.
Special thanks to the monster summoner for the last minute adrenaline rush!

Apologies to anyone who has not been mentioned in this report, and for any inaccuracies that may have crept in.

Tuesday 12th January 2000

6th January Celebrity Bash Report, with Llysfaen

I arrived early to ascertain if this was to be a PK blood-fest or a Non-PK affair. Azzuri, the presiding wizard, informed us all that it was to be PK heaven again, so I decided to bring in my protected persona Menai. (One less jugular for the PK's to sink their fangs into).

Immediately upon touching the land after the reset, I found myself at the sharp end of the antlers of the stag in the Deer Park. Fortunately, my best friend Giaconda (Swizzle) was on hand, and we managed to subdue the beast, with very little stam left between us. Shark0 was very quickly despatched with the help of Accrillic, who blinded it. The ghoul was bravely vanquished by Undertaker, and I decided to go to see who was assailing the Keep and it's deadly guardians.

Tanis was there, waiting for reinforcements, so I took the opportunity to see who had been elected Bash-General. Most of the shouts had been for Firefarter, so I fully expected the proceedings to be in his charge. My stomach turned and my heart sank when I saw whose name the postfix Bash-general had been affixed to... Mine!!! Eek!

I frantically contacted Azzuri and begged him to give the job to someone else, and he told me not to panic, and that he would look for a replacement. Phew! That was a relief! I went back to reporting the bash, and soon learned that Romulas was leading a team for the assault on the dwarf Realm, with the able assistance of Syl and Zugger.

Tanis was joined in the Keep by Sirius, Darknight and Maxmage, whilst Foz made short work of the apes. Valik informed me that he was embarking on an attack at the Goblin Dwellings, so I clicked 'who' to see who might be joining him. I saw that Azzuri had still not re-assigned Bash-General! I decided not to press the issue, and to do my best, regardless of the outcome.

Incarnate informed me he had vanquished the watersnakes, and the statue-making Basilisk was decimated by Marlight. Then that old bash chestnut reared its ugly head once more. Yes, you guessed it! One person had the chart, and another had the coal!

Simple, one might think. Just have the person with the chart give it to the coal holder, let someone kill Draggy.. job's a good'un. But no, Accrillic had the chart and wanted that coal. Thorax had the coal and wanted that chart. (Sigh)

Many minutes of valuable bash coordination time were wasted whilst I tried to persuade either party to acquiesce. Thorax steadfastly refused on the grounds that he had 'Worked hard for that coal m8'. Accrillic simply said 'No, I got the chart first'. (Double-Sigh)

Eventually Accrillic proved the better man by coming up with a compromise, which would leave his pride intact, yet help the bash. He told me the directions from the chart, which I relayed to Thorax. Ironically Thorax perished at the Dragon's breath, and Accrillc drowned!

I assisted RJW, Belgarath, Nivek and Sirius with the annihilation of Skeleton1 and the man, and all was going well, with a positive result looking quite likely.

Marlight led Niles and Tanis and overwhelmed the Pagoda. Then thing began to go horribly wrong! The value for killing Draggy went to a very tempting 2.5k but then Droo announced that it would be worth 10k if killed in a fight. Not particularly helpful, that.. Half the land seemed to evacuate to Dragon Island in a gold-rush for the Draggy points frenzy! Draggy was, as you can imagine, eventually bludgeoned into submission, but not without taking out some big names with him.

That awful bell began tolling at frighteningly regular intervals as magic user after magic user perished to Goblins, including Majortomas the Warlock.

Compounding the troubles were three Goblins, who had holed themselves up where no one could get at them, frustrating Valik's attempts to slaughter them. That was not all. Goblin Blacksmith now had the Valetant! Eek!

The Evil Wood and its ghostly inhabitants were put to the sword by Undertaker, Sirius, Valik, Giaconda and Belgarath. The Giants were subdued with Rocko sadly losing his life as Necromancer, but the Goblins were still a problem.

Time was running out and Belgarath decided it was my fault that the bash was failing and continued to complain until the end. Giaconda continued to ask where she was needed and was a great support at a difficult time in the bash. Marlight (my vote for 'Player of the Bash') finished the Tiger and Carp, but all was lost...

With 10 mobiles remaining, the bash ended, no 3k bonus for the gallant players and self-recrimination for a week for poor old moi. All that remains is for me to thank those who made a determined effort to make the bash succeed, and for me to apologise for its failure. (Triple-sigh)

Saturday 1st January 2000

1999 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR

Looking back on 1999...

Another year, another five wizzes :-). That's four less than last year. Suspect, a secret persona of the long-time wizrunner Keyser, was the first in mid-January and was followed by Lexley just over a month later (and only a fortnight after the first issue of Witch? magazine was released). Then in April Crumpet (Huck) made wiz... and was then de-wizzed for suspected cheating. The following month Boggy (as Oppps) and Antman (as Determined) both attained wizdom with Boggy beating rival Antman to the post by sixteen days. Next came Gandalf, rather suddenly in July. Last but not least was Huck on 19th September. No-one has wizzed since, though a fair few seem to have tried. So who will be the first wizard of the year 2000? Nobody is really quite sure... Or is he? :-) But seriously, I think we can expect a larger number of wizzes this year, perhaps a similar number to 1998.

Houses membership appears to have generally declined this year despite the introduction of PRIVATE and PUBLIC House types, with only House MA and one or two others attracting and holding large numbers of players. However, the number of individual Houses has steadily risen, and there has also been the appearance of (more?) 'joke' Houses such as JFW.

The year's competitions were a lot more varied than in previous years with, among others, CTF from Cat and friends in addition to two mortal vs. immortal sorcerer wars. For those who don't remember, the mortals won by the biased event and the wizzes won the fair one :-). Python and Calavera won the only two scheduled sorcerer wars of the year, though there were a lot of unscheduled wars. Mobile bashes have remained the same as ever with the exception of the addition of the giant realm area. Seamus was the year's most popular bash general.

The number of Wireplay MUD2-related websites has again increased. Unfortunately, many websites have stopped updating, such as Rocko's, Crowley's, Fizzy's, Daquie's and the MDK house site. New at the very end of the year was (and is!) Charmander's new page at www.btinternet.com/~indalo/index.html. There are rumours of a major new website arriving soon in 2000, and Muddy is also planning large changes.

2000 promises to be rather nice. And if not, we'll all still play anyway, so it doesn't really matter :-).

Happy new pre-millenium, players!

Quotes of the Year

Player: "I'm going for wiz!"
Gdn: "... Which one?"

Scum the protector: "Life sucks."
Player: "On what?"
Scum the protector: "On the genitalia of sorrow."

Lestat the protector, mud2.com: "Remember boys and girls, if you are ever unlucky - it's not luck! It's WIZ INTERFERENCE!"

Lexley, Witch? issue one: "So, we can now define a pk as: someone who plays with the intention of killing another player's character in the game without reasonable provocation. 'Their mere existence' does not constitute 'reasonable provocation'... "

Zordell: "MUD comes first... then the sex."

Sparkle: "You'd be surprised how many stupid mages there are out there."

Thebeat, on making friends: "The best way is start up a web site and people seem to like you a lot."

Guybrush: "By the power vest in me..."

Prodigy the mage: "Yeah, I would like to redefine the whole essence of being. A bit tricky that."

And finally, one from *two* years ago that I just had to put in...

Fleet, on herself: "A player of such knowledge and expert skills that she can not fail but to reach witch by the end of 1998!!"

TOP 100

Cat the chesire wizard has produced a top 100 of surviving mortal players as of January 1st 2000. A similar chart was produced a year ago and so the new one includes chart movement information for personae appearing in both. See the (reorganised) Charts to view it.

Friday 31st December 1999

30th December Celebrity Bash Report, with good old Seamus

This weeks bash was going to be the last of this century (I prefer not to say the M word) and there was a few people attending with about 25-30 people taking part on my count. Cat the wizard was in attendance and the bash was declared a PK bash. Nominations for general went in and Phleet shouted for nominations and got them. So Sister Phleet was our general for the evening.

First off, I helped Rjw and Psycopath with trying to kill the golem. Rjw was forced to flee so I went in and finished the golem off and handed out what the golem was guarding to the delightful helpers. After killing the ghoul with Jaster, Accrillic and Incarnate as assistance, I struggled to find somewhere to sleep due to the bash being a PK one and Moneypenny invisible and all kitted up to the eyeballs. I tried to go invisible and hide, but after being made visible very quickly, I made way to the shrine as cover for the time being. Unfortunately, what I didn't count on was the giant realm being opened up as I made way to the shrine and 5 goblins appered before me. I managed to struggle through them with my stamina on 23 and my magic on a low 13. So the count as I decided to go to the tearoom to recouperate was 164 alive in 77 minutes. So it was still possible to finish the bash.

In the tearoom, I had a chat with Mrwolf and Marlight who were also recovering, and then made my way to the caved-in grave with marlight so I could recover my stamina more quickly.

After I got some sleep, the count sat at 100 alive in 53 minutes so there was quite a bit to go before this bash could be considered over. However, Phleet our beloved bash-general decided that she would leave us on our own and make a dramatic exit (probably stage left??) and then the bash became a total mockery of one. No-one knew whether they were coming or going, apparently calls were made while I was recovering (deaf that is) for a new general but that never desolved into anything.

Anyway, Rjw was organising a team for the keep and Rocko was finishing his raid on the dwarf citadel. So I went looking for apes to kill and found one that was wandering about and so quickly finished it off to bring the count to 50 in 19 minutes. The bash was now a total farce!!! I should have just given up incase of being PK'd but decided to plod on and help out with what was left for my sake.

Morloc joined me and we went down to the black cave to help finish off a giant that was critically injured. Unfortunately, we never got to finish it off and Maxmage beat us to the final kill but Morloc and myself remained calm and set off to find another kill. We met up with a group taking on the giants at Before Shrine and joined in and beat the hell of of them as those giants were forced to read their last rites.

Unfortunately with blame being cast all over the place, their wasn't much we could do after our general left us in the lurch. So with only reset time remaining, I was attacked by Moneypenny, and although I tried to make her visible where possible, Marlight tried to help me and fled and I had to flee myself back to the tearoom minus 3.1k from the flee but thanks to the kills I made during the bash, I only made a loss of just over 1k so it wasn't that bad after all.

Happy New Year to everyone, stay sober and best of all, good luck with the bash next week.

Seamus the very merry and jolly (if not drunk) warlock

Friday 24th December 1999

23rd December Celebrity Bash Report, with Seamus

Yey!!! It's the last bash before the Christmas and while most people are stuffing their birds in time for Saturday, 22 people headed out to start a fun-packed bash which had specific rules as set out by Cat the Wizard before the bash started. There was to be no treasure swamping until the last mobile was killed, no PKing and no mages in at the start of the bash.

Ok. The reset started, everyone started, except me. I stayed in the tearoom to start with because I never had a pen to take notes to write this report down (d'oh!). When I finally did, the count was 215 alive in 97 minutes. So I met up with Bigphil in the tearoom and we headed to the well to help Olazabal who was killing the watersnakes. On our way there, we came across a raven and so blew that out of the air very quickly. Calls for bash general were being taken and most people shouted for Cora to be general, until I opened my big mouth!! "Cora for general <seamus>" I shouted, then suddenly there were cries of "Seamus for general"/"seamus"/"no seamus". The giant gob of Seamus suddenly got him the Bash general's job yet again. So I was the bash-general and everyone in the bash were given Christmasy prefixes, so I was known as Seamus the christmasy warlock [Bash-General].

Anyway, on with the bash. After killing 2 watersnakes, Bigphil, Olazabal and I got some sleep and figured where we could go next. Rocko was happy to lead a group into the dwarf citadel and mutilate all life that washed on their shores. Enchantia was happy to take a group into the keep and take over the ruin. Olazabal took out the hunchback after we had to wait 5 minutes while I rested to get some magic back after trying to glow a protector. Soulstaker thought I was some military general as he kept on asking "SIR! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO KILL SIR!" I like him, unfortuantely he was quickly killed by Santa Claus and a group including Maniac (there you go bud) made some little kids across the world present-less this year. Olazabal and I finally killed the hunchback and the count sat at 100 alive in 69 minutes.

So we decided to kill the golem at this moment. So Bigphil, Olazabal helped me get into the golem's lair and I didn't really have to much bother killing it and then wandered the land thinking what to kill next. The bash was certainly going to be closer this time. Enchantia, Amuser, Olazabal and I followed Guybrush into Evil Wood to kill the evil twins which didn't leave a mark on me at all but the vampire surprised me a lot. I took 30 off it's stamina while it only took 3 off my stamina. The count now sat at 50 left in 43 minutes.

There was suddenly a lot of shouting from people wanting to know what was left. Some people decided to take on the spider themselves. I told them to leave the spider till near the end. And with all this shouting, I decided if you want something done now - do it yourself!!! So that's exactly what I did. I immediately shouted for everyone to meet me at the rapids because we were going to take on all the giants sitting at Before Shrine. Nilesie was contemplating death while I took the group of Bigphil, Enchantia, Pippin, Rodriguez, Nilesie, Fastfeet, Charity, Soulstaker and Ignacio into face the deamons of the Land. Joey popped in himself and helped the cause and the giants were massacred in a bloody battle which saw Pippin flee and Rodriguez die twice to them before the sword was put down on them once and for all. This saw the count go down to 22 in 30 minutes. Serenety took it upon herself to get some people together and kill the apes at the pagoda and a group went passed the shrine boundaries and finish off the remaining goblins. Myself, Briana, Lovely, Bigphil and Foz went deep into the caves and killed the goblin blacksmith and his evil helpers before Fastfeet joined us and we killed the remaining giant hiding in the black cave.

What remained with the count at 10 alive in 22 minutes was the pagoda mobiles, the octopus and the spider. So Golde and Fastfeet accompanied me to the pagoda and made our way to the second level of enlightment in which some people were getting stuck into the mobiles there. The mongoose hid in the south room and the pheonix was killed before finally the mongoose came out of hiding and we finished him off. After using so much magic, I had to quickly rest because I only had 1 magic remaining!!!

The spider was killed by Serenety and helpers and the final mobile with barely 1 minute left was the octopus which was killed by Olazabal, Joey, Guybrush and Bigphil. Congratulations and Merry Christmas too all. The bash was visited by 6 wizzes of which 5 were there at the end. So Merry Christmas to Cat, Droo, Boggy, Karya, Agrazag and Gandalf :-).

Wednesday 22nd December 1999

ROCKO'S MUD LIFE

More secrets and giveaways available in the latest episode of Rocko's series. This time: druids from scratch, zero-man keep and how to make your own t using unlit brands. Check the bar above for the link.

MOBILE BASH

16th December Bash Report

---

This bash intentionally left crashed.

---

Firefarter was the bash general, and the players to die were Rjw and Romulas.

Saturday 11th December 1999

NIVEK TALKS BASH

9th December Celebrity Bash Report, with Nivek

The bash started off slowly as for the first 15 minutes of the bash fighting was turned on, then off, then on again, but mostly off, whilst Brew the 'seasonal wizard of bashing' possibly took votes for a pk or no pk bash. This week, the non-pks won the argument and a witch announced that player killing would be a foddable offence, or something. Some people, however, must not have been listening as two minutes later a big fight started at the rapids. One finger of death later and people started to hear a whole lot better.

Shortly afterwards, the vote for bash general began, and after several shouting out of the names of some fool and and some other fool, the first fool was generallified.

Too much time had already been wasted; with the sv reading 184 mobiles left in 90 minutes the bashing had to get off the ground. I decided to join a couple of idiots to do the icons; Firefarter/Olazabal/Me opting to go in this time and after a long, laggy fight with that golem of steel, the iconner emerged at the paddock with the snugglepuss.

Next I checked with one of the available morons whether or not the keep had been done. I found out that it hadn't. After 10 mins of searching for a vial, I made my way up Dally Lane and through the keep door only to find that the wyvern had gone. One floor up and, no, nothing there. I found the team resting on the 7th floor after a tough fight with the griffin. Upset that I had missed out on the action I decided to join them in the killing of the one remaining keep mobile. He went down no problem along with his 6 or so crow-nies and the treasure was there for the taking.

Droopy, in one of his playful moods, then decided to make the giant2 into a wizard as several cries of 'its the end of the world!' and 'lets kill it!' filled the air. Despite this, the giants seemed to go down no problem with only one death to the giants managed by a particularly low-level berk.

With 60 minutes to go there were 73 mobiles still remaining although this number was dropping at a hell of a rate. The pagoda was still unzipped at this point with only Alicia 'the championne the christmas turkey' attempting to take out the giantape. Help soon arrived and the pagoda mobiles soon bit the dust.

Now, with 30 minutes to go and only 9 mobiles left, Drumboy the wizard started to give clues out (in the form of a dream) as to which mobiles remained. One clue involved 'A young, blonde-haired girl, wearing only a scrap of hide around her thighs' and another involved a dwarf appearing after 'a small clap of thunder and an even smaller puff of yellow smoke', also scantily clad.

Within minutes, only the spider remained and with 26 minutes still on the clock, the bash was declared a success. All round, a great bash, though highly suspicious in places. Same time next week then I suppose...

Notable Pre/Post-fixes:

Bankrupt the necromancer of christmas shopping
Zugger the necromancer of christmas future
Pippin the surrealist hero of christmas present
Zordell the delirious necromancess of christmas past
Pixieman the mince-pie scoffing warrior

Notable deaths:

Undertaker the swordsman to the giant
Bluporl the superhero to the spider
Charity to the dwarf
Cheeseman for disconnecting in limbo.

This is a new news page. Older ones remain for for your viewing pleasure, especially for all you fools out there, as Nivek might say :-).

[ Previous News Page ]
[ Next News Page ]