Exploring the outskirts of Lydius

I headed to Lydius again to try and give it a better explore and see if I could meet anyone new. This time I opted to enter via the safer seaward side (docks are always safezones in SL Gor).

Arriving at the Lydius dock
A glance back out seaward
The dock gate

This way I might explore in relative safety.

Beyond the dock gate I found quite a sizeable area of land

The city gates in the distance
A glance to the Left..
A glance to the Right..

I headed for the gates of the city, but they were unsurprisingly locked.

Knock, knock..no-one home.
The building I saw in the distance was a Tavern

Since there was evidently no-one home I decided to explore the other buildings in the area, one of which turned out to be a tavern.

Inside a girl was dancing for her Master

I went and introduced myself and joined him in a vacant chair

Introducing myself



His girl by the name of Roxanne, made me a drink while I chatted with the man,Dirk.

Served a drink by Roxanne

I talked with him of where I was based across the river and of my recent encounter at the other city gate. He told me of who I might contact to get a key to the city gates and that there were homes available inside, so I may consider that.

He then escorted me safely to the city gates since he was returning to his home inside.

Dirk wishes me safe paths at the gates of Lydius

A risky reminder and a timely encounter

As I mentioned in my last post one of the risks of being female in SL Gor RP is the risk of being captured. I experienced a prime example of this very recently.

To the rear of the tavern building I’ve adopted is a bridge leading into the woods.

Crossing the bridge takes you into the next region over and through the woods is a path leading to a city, by the name of Lydius.

Crossing the bridge takes me into the forest
As I go over a stream I catch my first glimpse of the city

Previously I’d had a look around but not RPed with anyone there, however my friend Sigmond the Healer is based there.

I could see on the map there was someone there at the back of the city, so I thought I’d go knock on the door and say hello.

The gates of Lydius

However while I was stood knocking on the gate, someone came up behind me. I turned to greet them and it transpired they did not have my best interests at heart. Below is a transcript of the RP.

[04:40:51] Maddock Bracken (maddock) found himself in the company of fortune this day . . a lone woman inside the gates could be a challenge . . but here, he found one outside the gates, alone and unknown . . he closed upon her, thick dark hands reaching to grasp her
 
[04:43:26] Ava Delaney (avadelaney) takes a step back ” looking at his outstretched hand “What are you doing? I’m not some wench you can lay your hands on, I live in the fort just to the north”
 
[04:44:47] Maddock Bracken (maddock) paces her as she steps back . . the firm gate and stone wall soon making itself a barrier to her escape, leaving her words unanswered, he locked a firm grip upon her arm
[04:45:39] zCS # [Mod] Estinie Resident [RP] logged into the region.
[04:45:40] Long Range: Estinie Resident [94m]
[04:46:43] Ava Delaney (avadelaney) thinking since she’s agains the gate she may as wel try getting someones attention again and hammers the wood “Anyone home!”
 
[04:47:02] East Gate Door L shouts: AvaDelaney Resident knocks loudly at the door ♫
 
[04:47:33] Maddock Bracken (maddock) grabs the other arm, pulling them behind her, he wrenches them into the small of her back ..  drawing out rope
 
[04:47:46] Ava Delaney (avadelaney) shouts: Anone Home in there?!
 
[04:47:50] Rurik (Estinie) shouts: Coming!

 

My assailant (picture taken after the fact)



As soon as Rurik announced himself, my would-be captor departed with great haste. No exit RP, like maybe “hears the voice of the guard and backs away” or something, he just ran. Given the contents of his profile he only had capture and more on his mind. This is the kind of behaviour that gives Gor RP a bad reputation.
To say I was fortunate in IC terms that Rurik came along is quite an understatement. Because despite his dubious intentions, my would-be captors actions would have been legitimate in the RP setting.

Rurik let me inside and I breathed relief when the door shut.

I was once captured when I was new to Gor, it wasn’t much fun, but was a bit of a mix up due to my newness and was resolved rather promptly. It was shortly after that time I switched from playing a fair-game panther girl character to Free Woman Inn keeper.

While my assailants RP was mostly legitimate it would have been debatable. Free Women in Gor have a high status and given the location, he was being very reckless.

For a comparison to the real world, it would be something like abducting a minor celebrity from outside a police station at gun point when there’s a SWAT team inside. That’s the level of nerve (or stupidity).

That’s not my ego regarding the value of my person, it’s based on the way Free Women are depicted in the Gor book series. Here are a few quotes to illustrate my point:

“A free woman is inordinately precious. She is a thousand times, and more, above a mere slave.” (Players of Gor, p.92)

“For example, there is no higher person, nor one more respected, than the Gorean free woman.” (Hunters of Gor, p.311) 
 
“A free woman may often make a man angry with impunity, she being lofty and free, this latitude is seldom extended to the slave.” (Blood Brothers of Gor, p.221) 
 
Additionally a comment from a Gor Reference site:
“Free women are rarely raped unless it is leading to their direct enslavement. Even a Slaver who enslaves a free woman will treat her with courtesy until she has been branded.”
(Taken from this page on Gor-now.net)
 
So as you can see, my assailants actions were questionable at best.

The search for friends: Into the Jungle

The next stop after the Ikeri became surprisingly convoluted. I intended to visit the camp of a tribe I had known as the “Veck ‘En”, however as with other places, the landscape had changed quite a bit. I followed the path from the arrival point, but I ended up at waterfront.

Following the path lead to a dead end

It’s common for a trade area with a bell being what you arrive at first when approaching such a camp. I could see where it was but there was no immediately visible way of reaching it without getting wet. However the camp was clearly empty.

I found the trade area, after some wading

So at this point what I had intended to be an IC (In-Character) meet with whoever may now inhabit the camp, became an OOC (Out of Character) tour of the nearby regions.

An old friend by the name of Angel was in the nearby camp of the Wa Ngao, she TPed me across to her.

Angel introduces me to Petra

She then took me on a tour of the nearby places, given my character history as a Tavern Keeper, first stop was the Drunken Oak Tavern. Accompanied by a not-so-suble “which is currently without a keeper” remark which I found rather amusing.

When I posted my Tavern Fire RP (which can be found towards the end of Part 1 of my Gor story) via Notecard among the SL Gor community I had a number of offers of Taverns that were in need of keepers. So it shall be interesting how many I get as I attempt to re-connect with people.

The Drunken Oak

Which was surprisingly spacious inside and with multiple levels.

Then we passed through her tribes territory

Underground..

Overground..

Wandering Free..until the borer at least

Until we came to a border crossing in to the neighbouring tribes territory, the Sa Jesuil.

 

By this time I admit I was rather lost, the camps and a trading station cover 4 regions in a 2×2 square layout. The paths in between the various camps zigged and zagged in an irritatingly pointless fashion, except perhaps if they were like that for defensive purposes I thought. When I queried this, I found out that a lot of the areas were non-combat, RP only.

Once we were out of the maze and back to one of the docks, there was a sign, showing which areas were combat or RP areas.

A much needed map

I think to do this place with it’s numerous and varied inhabitants justice and make sense of it, I shall have to return. Next time however starting from each of the 4 regions landing points. The fact it has large RP-only areas quite appeals to me, since one off-putting thing about Gor RP for me is the constant risk of capture. For many players in SL Gor combat,raiding and capture RP is their main draw to it,but not for me.

The search for friends: The Ikeri

Following on from my last post I’m continuing the search for my friends and allies. First stop was the Ikeri tribe and their En (leader, Gorean term for First) by the name of Sky.

On my second attempt to visit there was one of the tribe bonds met me outside.

I am met at the gate by a bond

She invited me inside and we talked for a little while as she served me a drink.

Chatting to the bond girl

She was the only one there at the time, though it was quite early in SL time, so I went and returned a little later. When I returned the place was lot busier.

Inside the Ikeri camp

Third-time-lucky, Sky was around this time

Sky, En of the Ikeri tribe

I chatted to her and the other huntresses as the place began to fill up fairly quickly.


I had quite a surprise however, there were two bond girls and the second turned out to be one of the friends on my list of people to track down! It turned out that shortly after my tavern burned the nearest tribe, of which she was a member, disbanded. She was captured by one of the Ikeri and liking the place, she stayed.

The bond girl (in blue) with the brown hair turned out to be my old friend, Tara!

I stayed around and chatted for a little while, surprised at how many were appearing, but there was mention of an incoming raiding party, so I made a hasty exit so as not to be caught up in the fighting. Although given the number of panther girls in the camp, I’d probably have been quite safe sat in one of the huts while they fended off the intruders.

A wanderer Returns

This last week I decided to revisit some of my old friends in SL Gor.

It has been almost two years since the Tavern Fire storyline that preceded my departure from the Gor RP community, but I hadn’t cut ties completely. I’d kept a few good friends on my list and remained in a small number of inworld groups on mute.

The events described happened over the space of roughly a week but have been re-arranged and summarised for easier reading.

As a brief recap, I had left one community where I had run a large tavern, which accidentally burnt down one night.

My old Tavern

I moved to different forest location where I took up residence in an outpost hill fort,from where I became a roaming trader. This got extremely hard work and just not fun anymore, so just stopped going there or any other SL Gor places.

My story resumes with my return not immediately to the fort, but to the nearby camp of my old friend, Dani.

Camp of Dani’s band

I was, as expected, welcomed with open arms by Dani who was glad to see me after such a long time.

We sat and talked of old times and what I might do now. I would have been welcome there, but I prefer a proper bed and walls when I sleep these days, plus my complete ineptitude with weapons would make me a liability if the camp was attacked.

So I met with Sir Courgan who offered me a choice of two homes in the fort, being aware of my character history suggested maybe I could mind their local drinking establishment.

Meeting Courgan and Ame
Meeting Sir Courgan and his girl, Ame.

I chose one of  the offered huts and promptly made it my own

My new home in SL Gor

Once I was settled into my new home I decided I needed to begin tracking down my old friends and acquaintances ICly.

(Meaning while I could look them up in SL and see from profiles which bands or affiliations they were now part of, in RP terms my Character didn’t know these things, so I needed to find out.)

I thought a starting point would be to ask Dani what she could tell me, so another trip into the woods was required.

When I was leaving the fort I found an unusual scene at the bottom of the hill, a group of Dani’s huntresses gathered around a man on the floor. I recognised the man as a former acquaintance by the name of Castor. (I really wish I’d remembered to get a snapshot of this amusing scene, but alas no.)

I thought he might appreciate my aid and be of use to have around if running the tavern so I bartered for him, a cheap bottle of ka-la-na wine and he was mine. I left him at my hut in the fort an continued on my way.

On my arrival I was met by rather agitated Dani.
She informed me that one of the women was “going a little nuts and hearing voices”.  I admitted this was well beyond my rudimentary first aid skills, but I had seen a well-known healer by the name of Sigmond in the area and said I would mention it if I saw him.

Meeting with Dani to find out about my old friends

I then had a pleasant chat with Dani while another huntress listened drinking her morning cup of black wine (gorean coffee). However Dani didn’t have much information for me and the visit was cut short by an intruder in the forest and I was safely escorted back to the village none the wiser about the location of any of my old friends.

I met up with the physician, Sigmond, a couple of times over the following days

Absently biding my time in the tavern

Sigmond comes to visit

A drink with Sigmond while we talked of times old and new

I told him of the sick panther girl as I told Dani I would, one of the huntresses even dared to enter the village to give him some more detailed information, although she claimed to have been hunting and following her prey.

Towards the end of the week the girl that was with Sir Courgan when I met him,by the name of Ame visited the Tavern. Keeping it clean and tidy is among her regular tasks apparently. While she was there a local warrior by the name of Sorin paid a brief visit long enough to make introductions.

Ame fetches me a drink

The warrior Sorin only stayed briefly

In my further attempts to reconnect storylines with old friends I paid a visit to the Ikeri tribe that were my neighbors when I had my old tavern.

Their leader,Sky, my friend was not there at the time, but I met a pair of twins who assured me they would inform her of my visit.

The Ikeri camp..umm..Fortress?

Well those were the events of the week, which were fun to rp, I think there will be a bit more to come!

I heard from some of my older friends that I have yet to reunite with IC that things have changed a bit in my absence. Apparently the concept of IC info (like my character knowing where her friends are now) are concepts not often followed and not many are interested in long-running storylines. I hope this is a misconception or an exception, because I love a good story that runs for a while.

I’m going to stay around a little while longer and see how things play out. I hope roleplay here isn’t as dead as some are suggesting, but from what I’ve seen this week I’d say it’s still got a pulse!

If you want to read about my previous Gor history click HERE to read from the beginning.

The Haunted Motel

Ava arrived at the venue for the Glitter & Gore festival she planned to attend, to find that the only accommodation left in the area was a very rundown hotel. Having checked in with the rather creepy desk clerk she follows the directions to deadliesther room, deciding it was best she not find out what was making the odd noises in the rooms she passed on the way. She notices the somewhat dubious condition of the fireplace but it’s too cold in the room without it lit, so she sleeps.

She is woken all too soon by the fire having apparently been in worse condition than she thought and was surrounded by flames, she opens the room door and exits the building via a window.

Burning hotel
Ava stands looking at the burning hotel

Cranky at having had too few hours daylight sleep and the nature of her waking, she looks up at the burning building. She notices her car has also caught light, but simply shrugs now she won’t have to torch the rust bucket herself for the insurance. Seeing a green light around the corner of the building she heads for it muttering “that is Not normal”.

She follows the light uphill into the woods behind the building

forest entrance
The edge of the forest

and follows the path and the light till she sees a graveyard.

Something large and furry lunges out of the dark towards her and into her path.

Ava’s furry attacker

She raises a hand planting it on it’s chest and pushing it away, thinking it best not to harm the local denizens when not on her own territory. She flashes her fangs in it’s direction and continues on into the graveyard.

Ava is well aware that she is in fact the deadliest thing on the prowl tonight.

Entering the crypt in the graveyard she finds herself in a maze of tunnels,seeing again the green light Ava follows it to a room full of hanging cages.

Hanging cages surround Ava

Here the tunnels divide and she must explore them all to fin the way out, where she comes across several specters haunting the tunnels.

She also encounters one very large living inhabitant of the cave, a large spider

large spider
The only apparent living inhabitant of the tunnels

Ava retraces her steps and in the process finds what must have evidently  been the former residence of the spider, clearly some had tried to keep it locked up.

room of spider webs
Had someone tried to keep the spider in here?

Having found nothing but dead ends, Ava surmises that perhaps the spider is hiding or guarding something, which may include a way out. She returns to it’s cavern looking for a way past it and finds one, passing through a a very gory room, but the lack of cobwebs makes her think it’s not the spiders work.

She proceeds though to the next chamber finding a  ritual space with a glowing pentagram on the floor

Beyond it she notices another phenomenon, presumably what the spell was used to create, a glowing portal.

Since she has run out of options for where else to go, she takes a breath and steps in.

After what feels like an eternity of falling, Ava lands in the middle of a cornfield, an unexpected place for such a means of transport would deliver someone,but at least she was out of the tunnels.

She wanders the different paths, finding various sights on the way

Finally one of the paths does not end with a confrontation with something un-dead or un-human and she finds a familiar face and a way out. (I’m not going to spoil it all!)

For more information about the Haunted Motel, read the blog by my dear friend Sheree Honeyflower HERE.

Wardrobe Credits:
Hair: A&A Guilia Reds (Alli&Ali)
Body: Maitreya Lara 4.1
Skin: -{The Attic}- Anjelica – Natural (Alabaster)
Shape: Zyra Anna (modified)
Outfit: {Le’La} Rory Outfit

 

NeoVictoria RP Intro

Back in May I blogged about arriving at the NeoVictoria (NeoVic) roleplay region. However despite my enthusiasm at having my backstory and character accepted, everything kinda stopped there. A combination of real-life and mismatched timezones meant I hadn’t even been able to rp my character (Misch) into the story, until recently.

This was rather different to previous rp I have done, in that the conversation is structured. Players must stay in conversation order, not typing a response to something until it’s your turn in the chat order. Which I found rather frustrating to begin with and also leads to big silences in local chat if someone is typing a long response. I have previously been used to typing responses straightaway, big gaps make me wonder if the person is even still at their keyboard or gone to make a snack. (Since sometimes you actually have that much time before it’s your turn to respond when using a chat order).

The advantage I found however was that this gave me time to compose appropriate responses to each participant in the conversation. The result however is that the more participants in the conversation, the longer the chat posts.

For example take a conversation involving 4 people. Player 1 makes a long post addressing all the other players, Player 2 makes a short post responding to the part that was relevant to them. If player 3 makes a short response to player 2, player 2 still has to wait until players 4&1 have posted before they can reply, regardless if the response would have been two words or two paragraphs in length. If player 4 then makes a long post addressing everyone, player 1 will definitely have had time to put the kettle on and come back with a cuppa before its their turn.
I’m sure it’ll get more of a habit and hopefully less frustrating as time goes on.

Anyway, onto what actually happened in the roleplay. Due to the length of some of the messages I won’t copy them all here, instead will give a descriptive summary:

I was seated in the empty tavern having a rest after my long journey from the wilds into the city. I glances out the window and see there a couple of people arrived in the town square outside.
I approached them slowly giving them chance to see me and to not appear to be a threat. One of them was a woman selling fresh pumpkins from a cart. The other appeared to be an odd creature, apparently Fae of some kind.
I said I was looking for somewhere to stay, they both offered up options.

The woman whose name was Annabelle said I could stay at the farm in exchange for helping out.The Fae’s offer was a lot more vague, clearly somewhere outdoors and given I had spent so long, until arriving at the city, in such circumstances I declined the offer.

I dropped various comments about preferring darkness and being stronger than I looked, in reference to my approved character traits. So by the end of the rp I was headed to the farm where I would have accommodation and a job maintaining the mushroom beds, on account of good night sight and a preference for dark places.

If you are interested in the full transcript by Jhaesoph Foxdale you can read it here.

Eternal Conflict part 2

After my last visit to the Eternal Conflict regions and taking a glimpse of the Angel Archadia, I was looking forward to returning. The arrival area that I took a single pic of at the end of my last post is very impressive.

As I mentioned before, I always check behind me, the massive statues were impressive and the doorway seemed inviting so went and had a look. Which leads through to a  very impressive build, similar to that in my very first visit.

I then came back and explored the buildings around the landing area.

The buildings around the area contain various different tasks to be completed by Angel players in the game.  This is where I re-evaluate my original description of Eternal Conflict. I referred to it as “an invite-only Angels & Demons roleplay game”, which is quite an understatement. The roleplay is an optional component, the majority of game appears to be completing these tasks to level-up and strengthen your characters abilities for combat in as the name says, eternal conflict. The series of tasks to reach these ends can be quite time-consuming and complex. For example to make a spell scroll several tasks have to be completed:

  • Chopping lumber from trees for logs
  • Using the logs to make parchment
  • Inscribing the spell onto the parchment

Sounds simple, right? Except that the task of collecting logs requires spending an awful lot of time practicing your Lumberjack skill, before you successfully managed to collect a single log. Then a similar processes for turning the logs into parchment and inscribing the spell. That’s assuming you have gone through the processes to make Ink..

Second Life is just the environment framework used to facilitate the game. The combat can take place anywhere on the SL grid, invisible to non-registered residents.  Yesterday I became a registered player of the game, today I was attacked while dancing at a club, no-one around me was any the wiser. However this practice of attacking a new player is very frowned upon, but is as I found out, very possible.  I’m sure once I have mastered the skills required it will be a lot of fun.

My Angel outfit:

Hair: A&A Guilia Reds (Alli&Ali)
Body: Maitreya Lara 4.1
Skin: -{The Attic}- Anjelica – Natural (Alabaster)
Shape: Zyra Anna (modified)
Arm Bracelts: [BODY FACTORY] Illusion Angel Bracelet (Grey)
Ear Cuffs: Angel Wings Silver
Necklace: Lethe Necklace by lassitude & ennui
Dress: White Wedding Gown(GRACE) by AmAzINg CrEaTiOnS 2
Wings: [EC] – Angel Wings (Hope) 

Eternal Conflict

So back in July I was looking for a nice pair of Angel wings, I found some lovely ones on Markerplace. The description of the wings talked about a roleplay system called Eternal Conflict, which is an invite-only Angels & Demons roleplay game. Correspondingly they have two location themes, Heaven & Hell.

The first collection of images were taken  in the Heaven part and I found the place totally enchanting.

I returned recently to revisit the region and explore the Hell part.

From the arrival point you can see a number of round towers, marked Laboratory,Marketplace,Temple, Hall of Death and another away from the others marked “Throne of the Prime God” there is also the visible chasm into a pit of lava.

 

The Laboratory

Marketplace

Temple

Hall of Death

These all contain objects clearly pertaining to the various aspects of the game, which I am as yet unfamiliar, so could only guess at their respective purposes.

Throne of the Prince God

This tower set away from the others had no apparent pedestrian access, being suspended above the ground on the cave wall.

I took a few other snaps of this upper level, where are seating and props before heading down into the pit..

I took the rather impressive teleporter down to the lower level:

Fiery teleporter

Down in the lower level as you’d imagine, lots of rivers of lava among impressive statues

After checking a notecard I’d received, I discovered there was more to be found. Another two areas Hell: The Ruins and Heaven’s Archadia
which are located in a different region.

So off to The Ruins I went.

As usual I took snaps around the welcome area..

Quite often arrival points just expect you to go forward, which is why I always check behind me, in case the builder has been imaginative. Here there’s a throne up on a raised platform hidden behind some rocks.

I then headed out following where they expect you to go, towards a large statue:

Here you can go either down into a mine

Or in the other direction to a castle type building:

After a little wander, I thought it was time to go briefly visit the second Heaven location:

Heaven’s Archadia arrival point

I’ll write up about Archadia in a follow up post, since if it’s half as detailed as Hell, it’ll take me a while to explore it!

You can read more about the game on the Official website.

My Hell Outfit:
Body: Maitreya Lara
Clothes: Mirza Gothic Style (Complete Outfit) – Brii Underground
Hair: Montana – Truth

Read Eternal Conflict Part 2

Waterfalls and Dreams

I saw this place on a destinations guide and thought “oh that’s pretty” and thought I’d go have a look. However when it’s come to writing something about the place, I got a little stuck. It does look lovely, it’s well built and laid out and the music stream is appropriately relaxed. However it just feels like just another high fantasy beauty spot from the many linked off the same guide.

So I asked a fellow visitor for their opinion and their response was:

“ohh it is very magic and peaceful here” and that it was “like a few, but not Lots.”(of other places)

So maybe I was being overly harsh. Stop by and have a look, maybe leave a comment if you think I’m right or wrong. Seeing it for yourself will no doubt be much better than my humble snapshots.

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Husky%20Tails/40/90/24

Wardrobe Credits:

Hair: A&A Guilia Reds (Alli&Ali)
Body: Maitreya Lara 4.1
Skin: -{The Attic}- Anjelica – Natural (Alabaster)
Shape: Zyra Anna (modified)
Corset & Knife : Bonny Pirate from Brii Underground
Top: Caravan Top by Beyond the Mists
Pants & Belt: Tracker Outfit Moss from Velvet Whip
Upper Arm pouches: AdN Sabotage
Boots: Female Huntsman
Backpack: Old Worlds OW Medieval backpack 2 by Katrina Kristan from Old Worlds
Gloves: Owl Gloves by Loki Eliot (Fantasy Faire item)