"The raiders are honoring the terms of the alliance," the Tumerok reported. "They have begun moving toward current Lugian holdings, though it appears that they remain fractured and hampered by those still loyal to Kresovus."
"What of our forces?" the Overlord asked as he thrust a dagger through a tender chunk of fire auroch meat.
"Our forces rally to the banners outside of Dryreach. The holdings there swell with more of our number by the moment; the eldest are joining the ranks of the militia while the youngest remain in the training facilities honing their skills." The Tumerok remained rigid and alert, never once meeting the eyes of his commander.
"Keep me informed of any movement against us, Captain." The Overlord ripped a hunk of meat free and dismissed the captain with a wave. The captain turned on his heels and left the Overlord's chambers.
*****
"Dryreach?" Elysa asked.
"Yes. Not truly much of a surprise; the residents of the town did say that there was an increase in the Tumerok population over the past lunar cycle," Antius responded. He sat across the table from her, flanked by two guards.
"See that a garrison is sent to investigate. I'll be damned if I'll allow Hea Tumeroks to make their homes in Derethian lands again." She met Antius' gaze and motioned the two guards away. As they left the room, she asked, "What of Asheron?"
"Gone." He leaned back in the chair and let out a soft sigh. "I made my way to his island as you instructed, but there was no answer when I reached the tower." He paused as he searched her consternated face, then asked, "Should I continue my efforts?"
"No—" she snapped. "No, I was just curious for my friend. He's been troubled lately. Besides, it's time we stopped relying on him and rely on ourselves."
Listed below are the changes introduced in our April event. We've spelled out specific changes to game functionality and existing content, but the details on new content are up to you to discover! Speak to town criers, barkeeps, and scribes for hints about the latest happenings in Dereth. For more information on this month's event, please see this month's Letter to the Players. Please submit any bugs you come across to http://bugs.zone.com.
New Functionality and Content
- Ulgrim has returned to his home, and he brought his Phat Loot with him!
- Bowyers in Dereth are now selling bow spike shafts, which a talented fletcher can craft into throwable spikes.
- We have tweaked the range penalty for missile weapons. See the Letter to the Players for more details.
- The Crystal Shards in the Direlands and other high level areas are occasionally leaving behind a new form of crystal, as are the Sentient Crystals that inhabit the Valley of Death.
- Gambling tokens are now stackable.
- Using a Shrine or gem will now transport you directly to Oolutanga's Refuge.
- The inherent dispel spell on the Awakener buadren can now be cast on NPKs as well as PKs.
- Some monsters are now more protective of their brethren.
- Some creature weapons were dealing fire damage, but had the appearance of an electric weapon. These have been fixed.
- Last month, as part of our ongoing efforts to further improve server performance, we increased the cache size of the allegiance pass-up experience cache. This caused some odd behavior to appear with vassal experience pass-up. This month, we have tweaked the cache size downward a bit to reduce the appearance of odd behavior, while still preserving the benefits to server performance.
- Missile objects that hit the environment will now be destroyed, just as if they had successfully struck their target. This change should improve the performance both of the server and the client, especially in crowded situations.
- Several very minor bugs affecting the distribution of experience in fellowships have been resolved.
