Himitsu's Adventures

I've decided that I'm definitely going to reset and leave the mystic world behind and therefore this journal will not be updated. I'll be writing somewhere else and more frequently, but I don't know where at the moment. When I know what the address is I'll edit this post and put it here.

I plan on revamping Eyes of Puddleby, or perhaps just contributing to someone else's effort but I don't know what specifically I'll do. I have to research what other people have done before deciding whether to help them or make a site on my own.

All of the pictures and entries should stay here for as long as LiveJournal exists, but if there's a picture or entry you especially like I recommend making a copy just in case.

I know that some might think that it would be strange to throw everything away that I've worked for off and on since 2002 when I was promoted to Journeyman Mystic, but I realize that I'll never be promoted to Full Mystic without being active and I'm not going to be active because being a mystic doesn't help me with what I want to accomplish in Clan Lord. What's the point of staying in the library and only coming out to see how many ranks I've earned every few months?

P.S. Here are the ranks I had for those interested.

Advanced Pathfinding (Book 1) 20
Alaenos (scanning) 300
Asteshesha (phantasmological skills) 50-99 (I didn't keep count.)
Bodrus 100
Bouste (overall boosting) 300
Bruia Stout (brewing) 30
Chronos (length of boost) 0
Histuvia (health) 50
Madame Summa-Casi (mind control) 50
Marsh Hermit 100
Master Skryss (locating) 300
Mentus 200
Oossla (Infinity Stone) 0
Pontifen (Atkus boost) 0
Quantos (Balthus boost) 0
Radia (area of boost) 100
Respos (spirit regeneration) 350-399 (Was training to 600.)
Sespos (spirit quantity) 300
Skea Brightfur 50
Zeucros (baking) 30
Languages I know all of the languages.

I was looking over my mystic ideas and realized that they have as good a chance of being implemented as I have of winning the lottery without buying a ticket. In other words the odds are somewhere between zero and none.

I got to thinking about why I became a mystic in the first place. It was so I could get knowledge and record it for other people to use. That's why I put together Eyes of Puddleby, but the sad truth of the matter is that as a mystic I am not suited to gaining knowledge. Furthermore, of all the classes, mystics are least likely to share their knowledge with other people (least of all other mystics). I thought mystics would view each other as fellow travelers but actually mystics view each other as robbers who would steal their treasure unless they are on their guard. The treasure in this case is knowledge.

As a Journeyman Mystic, I am not wanted in groups because I have nothing to offer and when I go on hunts I try to pretend that my skills are useful when I know they are not. My boosts are weak and scanning isn't needed. Therefore, it's hard for me to go to places to find knowledge because I'm frail physically, and actually I have no tools that enable me to know anything more than anyone else.

Therefore, I have been considering resetting and becoming a Ranger. I know it's a radical idea to throw away so many years of struggle to get where I am today but it's either that or continue hiding in the library and letting Eyes of Puddleby stagnate. At least as a Ranger I will be able to leave town without running from every Giant Vermine that comes my way. I'll be weaker than I am now for a while, until I get some Evus training but after that I will only get stronger and stronger.

Do I want to give up any chance I may have at becoming a Full Mystic? Do I care about being a Full Mystic at all even more? At this time I am only apathetic about the possibility, and am not all that interested about playing politics behind the scenes as so many others seem to enjoy doing.

I don't even know if I have a chance at getting promoted or whether I'm on some blacklist with no hope at all. For someone like me who's goal oriented it's hard not knowing whether I'm doing well or doing badly.

I'd hate to disappoint the Full Mystics who seem to support me such as Rincewind, Melben, and Asenath. Yet I can't remain a mystic for their sake and it's not like they're clanning any more often than I am.

Hmm, if I were to become a Ranger what would I do? I'd start out with getting 200 Skea and 100 Marsh Hermit right away and would only become a Fighter to get the dagger, which is a great weapon, and to avoid being thought of as a mystic wannabe. The reason I'd get all of those non-fighter ranks first is to get them out of the way and so I could more easily follow with groups going to the advanced pathfinding books as soon as I could. After I got done I'd switch to Evus and stay with him until I qualified for the Gossamer some time after hitting 3rd-circle and then I'd get 100 Gossamer ranks. After that I'd go back to Evus while working on becoming a Ranger which would probably take me until after I reached 4th-circle. Once becoming 4th-circle I'd get the 50 ranks with Rodnus and get another 100 Gossamer ranks. I'll probably train a bit more with Evus until I reach the next message because I'm weird like that. If I'm still not a Ranger after all of that then I'll probably just get more Gossamer. After I become a Ranger I'll improve my spirit and switch from Evus as my main fighter trainer to one of the Ranger combo trainers. One is more offensive and the other is more defensive but aside from that I don't know which one is better for me. I'll get more Gossamer along the way and probably won't get more than 400 in the end. Having a good amount of Gossamer is important but I don't want to be like those Rangers who have to rely on luck to get last hits so I want a good amount of natural Atkus and Darkus as well. Plus, if I ever decide to get morphs I don't want to be prevented from getting them or taking advantage of them if my fighter ranks are too low.

Aaah! I'm really talking myself into making this dramatic change but I won't do it just yet. I'll do some more thinking about it before coming to a decision.

Now I’ll explore the Full Mystic (FM) skills.

FULL MYSTIC SKILLS

• Sunstone Tuning: Tunes raw sunstones and upgrades sunstones to suncrystals and sungems.
• Teleportation: Using a strange stone, the mystic teleports himself and up to 5 people.
• Illusions: Opens up magical illusions for folks to enter, much like pathfinding.
• Horus Potion: Using hard-to-get ingredients, a full mystic can make a potion that increases the effectiveness of horus on a fallen.

In contrast to the AM and JM skills, the FM skills aren’t nearly as flashy by contrast. Let’s see what we can do to improve them.

Sunstone Tuning fits in with the mystic mold although it’s not used very often and I hear it costs coins to learn. If it does cost coins to learn then it shouldn’t cost any ranks.

Teleportation is what is most often associated with FMs and with training an FM can travel a long distance. They can even keep multiple strange stones with different locations for each of them. There are teleportation boosters in PC/SC which enable mystics to teleport past the 5 person limit and further then they might be able to do on their own. This is useful but it can be improved upon dramatically. One of the bigger problems with Clan Lord is that it takes a long time to get to places and thus a long time to return back to Puddleby. In addition, if a person leaves the library late and a group has already left it’s often not possible to catch up. An FM can get around these problems in several ways. One thing they can do is summon people to their location, maybe from a mark they made earlier. Maybe FMs can make items that if both people have it, one person can summon another person to them which would need to be charged as well. FMs can also charge and/or make Purgatory Pendents such as what Healers have so everyone can easily return to town. It would cost no ranks to learn and all Healers would get their 50 ranks back. This way people can easily get to hunts and easily leave from hunts.

Illusions used to be a JM skill but got increased to FM a long time ago. Gradually the number of illusions were removed so that the only ones I know of are to enter Dal’Noth and The Land of Sarra (although this one has an alternate PF entrance) and Lugubrion’s Castle (although this one requires so many ranks that no one can use it without months or years of training). Should this skill even be around anymore? Mystics didn’t want to be doormen and the number of FMs were so small that no new illusions were introduced and most of them removed. Perhaps FMs should be able to make items that can break illusions that need to be recharged just as the revamped Purgatory Pendents would need to be. The amount of illusion training should also be capped and perhaps the level that the illusion breaking item can break is less than the level mystics can break. That way a place like Dal’Noth can be opened up by the item and need charging but a tough one like The Land of Sarra needs the actual mystic. Or maybe the illusion breaking item effect can accumulate so it’ll take a few exiles with the items to break a really tough illusion or just one FM.

The Horus potion needs some hard-to-get ingredients and seems to be little more effective than an Orga Eye which is to say not very effective at all. This potion could be moved to the Sun/Moon subclass and made to actually work. Maybe a percentage bonus of everyone’s horus so that someone with 500 horus would suddenly have 625 or 750 horus for a few seconds. There can be Sun/Sun and Sun/Earth potions introduced as well. The Sun/Earth potion could be a weaker version of the Champion’s Stone Girdle and give someone extra health for a few seconds. Maybe the Sun/Sun potion could increase a person’s mentus or increase the effectiveness of a mystic’s tools. The ingredients should be easier to get but not so easy to get that they’re common. I’d say people should have the same access to the mystic potions as we have access to Red Healing Salves.

Lastly, FMs get some subtle benefits just by being FMs. Not just turning in soil samples but when a mystic is required in certain areas you have to be a FM to be recognized as a mystic. There aren’t many places like this thankfully but they are there.

Aside from the potions, I don’t see any reason to limit the FM skills by the subclasses. All FMs should be able to teleport and summon and illusion breaking should be rank capped and sunstone tuning shouldn’t cost ranks if it costs coins. What I think is needed are subclass FM skills that, along with the more useful boosts and JM skills, to encourage mystics to go on hunts and be needed and do things along the way. What skills could they have? You’ll have to wait until the next post to find out!

Journeyman Mystics (JM) and Full Mystics (FM) have several skills that need to be revamped. I have ideas that would enable them to be more powerful by using the mechanic of Rangers.
First, let’s look at the JM skills we have available.

JOURNEYMAN SKILLS

• Infinity Stone: Answers limited questions asked by the mystic.
• Skrystal: Locates exiles and npcs by using their name.
• Orb of Caesindre: Scans the current or next snell for exiles or monsters
• Mind Control Wand: Forces a monster to follow the mystic but doesn’t prevent it from attacking exiles.

First of all, I’d either get rid of the Infinity Stone or make it require no training and increase the number of useful questions it can answer. If every JM was assured of having this ability I could then use it more often so that mystics would be the people that could get information. Either way there’s no reason for this skill to cost ranks.

The Skrystal is fine the way it is even though locating isn’t really as needed nowadays. I use it more often for npcs than exiles but it’s still useful to find folks who fall to a generic monster such as a feral. What I would do is return the ability to locate off-island so I can be in town and locate someone on a different island (Ash Island for example) instead of the generic message I get now.

The Orb of Caesindre is what I complain most often about since it’s not useful, especially compared to the Ranger tracking skill. Even with 300 ranks in it when I scan for exiles, I don’t always get their nametags and since I see generic looking exiles (not in the clothes they’re actually wearing) it’s impossible to tell who is who without that. When I scan for monsters I don’t have any idea of where they are on the snell and if there are monsters who look alike I have no idea what I’m looking at since monsters don’t get nametags. I also have no idea of how many of each monster are on the snell without making an educated guess. Unlike Rangers I don’t get the ability to track a specific monster (no arrow!). Therefore nametags on both exiles and monsters 100% of the time, at least above a certain amount of ranks invested, is critical. Having some idea of where the exiles and monsters are on the snell and having a clear number of how many are there would turn this tool from useless to useful.

The Mind Control Wand is similar to that of the Ranger befriend ability but their pets attack other monsters and they can be taken across snell boundaries. The mystic version does neither of these things. Our version is pathetic by comparison since the only thing our Mind Control Wand does is cause the monster to follow us and it continues to attack exiles. What happens when a Death Vermine spawns near a mystic? It attacks and the mystic falls. What happens when they mind control it? It attacks and the mystic falls.

My idea to solve both of these problems is to use the Ranger mechanic of Duvin which they need to study monsters. Rangers spend their Duvin ranks when they study a monster to unlock their Gossamer and more when they want to befriend them and even more when they want to morph into them. My idea is that Mystics get our Duvin ranks from Mentus. It can then be used to track the monster down or to mind control them and our pets would be as powerful as the Ranger pets are. Alternatively our Duvin could be gained from the Mind Control Wand trainer and that used to both mind control and track a specific monster. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Getting our Duvin from Mentus is a more generic source and can be used with multiple tools while Duvin from the Mind Control Wand trainer would give another reason to train with her other than reducing the spirit needed. Either way our mind control can’t be so useless and we should have a way to track a specific monster just as the Rangers do.

That leads to another question. How do mystics study monsters? Rangers do it by getting the last hit which obviously can’t work for us. Maybe put a debuff on it that has to be killed by others before it runs out. Or when it gets killed the mystic has to learn from the corpse before it poofs by absorbing it much like Bloodmages and their absorb ability. Befriending isn’t easy for the Ranger (they have to get hundreds of last hits) and if the Mystic version is going to be as powerful then it shouldn’t be easy for us to get it either. I’m definitely not suggesting that mystics get the same power as rangers without having to go through some of the same sort of difficulty in getting it. All I want is for mystics to have the same sort of mystic abilities that rangers get.

I haven’t talked about subclasses yet and there are a few ways to use them here. One way is to have a subclass be stronger at using a specific skill. The Sun/Earth subclass would be better at using the scanning ability, the Sun/Sun subclass would be better at locating and maybe the Infinity Stone if it’s still around, and the Sun/Moon subclass would be better at mind control. All subclasses would get access to everything but there’d be a bonus if your subclass matched the skill you were using. Alternatively there could be a limit to how much training you can get in a skill outside of your specialty so everyone could locate but only a Sun/Sun mystic would be able to locate more than a few snells away.

There are many questions that has to be answered before the JM skills can be revamped, especially with how subclasses are going to be used. Once that is answered everything else can be answered relatively easily.

If I were in charge of the mystic class, the first thing I’d do would be to revamp the boosts to make them relevant. Aside from a few hunts where folks need atkus, they aren’t used very often. The atkus boost suffers from the same problem as atkus itself because you either have enough or you don’t, and if your boost isn’t strong enough all you’re doing is taking away balance. What to do about this problem? My solution is to use the subclass idea. Yes, subclasses for mystics!

Apprentice Mystics would be able to pick a subclass because getting them interested in the class and in being integrated with the community would encourage more of them to stick around. There’d be an interesting quest line for each path but without the same kind of luck and annoyance that the mind control wand quest line has.

First I’d revamp the two boosts that all mystics have access to. The balthus boost would be a swengus boost with both balthus and regia. The atkus boost would have atkus and darkus. The boost radius trainer would be removed and all boosts would have the same area and her ranks refunded. The boost length trainer would either remain or his lessons integrated into each individual boost trainer. I like the latter idea because getting really good with a boost and then having to put in 100 or 200 ranks so it lasts longer than 10 seconds is silly. The boost combo trainer would be more clear as to what he teaches and the individual boost trainers would reflect the ranks you have with him because currently they do not.

The Sun/Earth boost would be one for defense such as Histia and Detha. I’d have more health than defense to start with but that can be changed if folks value defense more. Everyone, not just fighters, would want this boost. In tough places having more defense will help folks live longer and healer rods would like the additional health.

The Sun/Sun boost would be one for spirit such as Respia and Sespus. Everyone who uses spirit would like this boost, especially Bloodmages.

The Sun/Moon boost was a bit tougher but I think it will be Rodnus, or the ability to be healed faster. Not all healers have a ton of Faustus so enabling everyone to be healed more efficiently will make their job easier.

In order for mystics to not have to spend a ton of ranks in all 3 boosts I think that their effectiveness should be stepped. You’d get the most effectiveness out of the first 200 or 300 ranks. Say a mystic trains 200 times with the swengus boost. If 100 ranks gave 60 balthus and 40 regia, they’d be able to give someone 120 balthus and 80 regia which is great for a 3rd-circle or even a 4th-circle fighter but for anyone else it’s nothing. I’d say for the first 200 or 300 ranks in a boost they’d have 2x efficiency (240 balthus and 160 regia) or maybe even 3x efficiency (360 balthus and 240 regia). Past the first cutoff point the efficiency would go down but would be at least 1x so it wouldn’t be worthless to train more in it. That way if a mystic wanted to be really good at a boost they could be but if they wanted to be good at 2 boosts or all 3 they wouldn’t have completely worthless boosts that were just a waste of ranks.

Of course, all ratios are just what I’d start out with and they’d be tweaked as needed because boosts shouldn’t replace exiles training for themselves, but at the same time they should be powerful enough to be noticed. I understand this is difficult to accomplish but in Clan Lord’s case I’d have to err on the side of slightly too powerful. I say that not because I’m a mystic and want to be powerful (even though I am and I do) but because of psychology. If a person such as Daimoth is going to bring a mystic with his group that will take one of the 5 shares and who can do nothing but boost he will want the boosts to be worthwhile. If they are underpowered he probably won’t bring them along and so all of the effort to revamp the boosts will be worthless. Therefore the idea in people’s minds is that they want the boosts to be more effective and hence want a mystic in their group but not that they need the boosts.

Next time I’ll talk about Journeyman and Full Mystic abilities and what to do about them. Can they work with the subclasses?

At least that’s what I’m going to think of Winds of Dawn because it implies that it will wake up one day.

As of now it’s a clan with very few active members, an absent leader, and a purpose which needs to be revised (there aren’t too many true newbies around). To revive Winds of Dawn we’ll need to correct all of these problems and with only Therian and myself expressing any interest it would be very difficult to do. Not impossible but it would be a struggle.

Not to toot my own horn but it would more than likely be me who does most of the work and I just don’t have the time. I want to work on Eyes of Puddleby (site is done but I want to put more material there before advertising its opening) and I have other things in Clan Lord I want to do. It would essentially be starting the clan over from scratch and I don’t have the ability or desire to do so.

There very likely won’t be any future Newbielympics unless someone else takes over as I believe Cammie did this year when I was unable to clan. Sadly it seems that she’s gone as well and isn’t holding her weekly open hunts either. Most of the newbies who participated in recent years were just library characters (on the accounts of established & financially independent exiles) and while the goal was noble (give newbies gear and money and fun), there weren’t many true newbies that participated. Knowing that most of the newbies who suddenly appeared would never be seen again put a damper on my enthusiasm.

I do like the idea of a yearly Olympics that would pit exile vs. exile for fun and prizes. We have something like this with clan vs. clan but that can happen several times a year and there really isn’t any reward for doing well besides clan pride. I’m just brainstorming so don’t be surprised if nothing comes out of this.

I’ll likely stay in Winds of Dawn out of force of habit and because there aren’t many other active clans. Neko no Kessha seems to be the only clan doing anything together. Even the weekly OWE open hunts are led by just one person, Torin. Most of what I do is done out of the game anyway and, oddly enough about a game called Clan Lord, clans aren’t that important.

Oh well, I shouldn’t be so sad. Winds of Dawn has been asleep for a long time.

I moved over most of the content from Eyes of Puddleby's old home and it can be found here.

There's a lot I have to do before I am ready to announce it to ThoomCare because most of the data is from 5 and 6 years ago. I have to figure out what kind of articles I want to write next.

I'm just glad this part of the job is completed and I can look to the future of what the site is going to contain instead of what it contained so many years ago.

Was it really so many years ago that I actually worked on it? I definitely can't let that happen again.

To the future!

I was able to train with the first book of advanced pathfinding thanks to Torin and his open hunts. I'm thinking of saving up my ranks so when I get to go back there again I'll be able to get both the second and third chapter in one trip. I'll have to depart to get home, but that's better than waiting for another trip.

I also found another book which only I could learn from. After some research I discovered that it allows you to scan from orbs further on in the caves which is completely pointless. Scanning is already looking like a colossal waste of ranks and scanning anywhere in the noid caves is even more so. Everywhere you look there are noids of various colors so a mystic scanning on one of those orbs will see noids of various colors. It's not telling you anything you don't already know so there's no point in learning this ability even if a mystic did plan on going deep in the noid caves regularly.


I occasionally look for Ma Tota when I'm out of the library, but I haven't gotten past her telling me to see her the next day. Maybe I am not seeing her the next day and maybe it's because I tend to fall a lot when I'm trying to find her.


Then there is the awful Acolyte quest to get the mind control wand which has nearly driven me up the wall in frustration. Several other mystics have gotten their wands and yet I am still running around looking for Acolytes. I've gotten help from Geotzou and we have traveled around Puddleby several times over and I've talked to the same Acolytes over and over again yet I'm still told I need to talk to Acolytes. I don't know what I need to do or where I should go and I think even asking a fellow mystic to exchange information will be looked on unfavorably so I'm at an impasse.


On a recent Winds of Dawn open hunts we went to the Rocky Cavern and found a rare Sun Wyrm. With only one fighter, one mystic, and two healers against the Sun Wyrm's natural troilus it took us several attempts to kill it and we were ready to give up several times. Yet with determination, a few boosts, and rodding we were able to defeat it.


A while back I got to go on a fun adventure to an amusement park on Tenebrion's Island with Stinkfist and Ptolemaios. I got to rid on the back of a Fire Drake. It was a lot of fun and a surprisingly smooth ride.


I got to see Super Chicken's statue which really should be closer to town.


Finally we took a boat ride passing through a whirlpool, among other sights, before heading back home.

I've been working on getting the new mystic ability to mind control beasts, but it's been hard because I have to go around and find acolytes. The acolytes are in dangerous places and since they move around I don't know where they are or even how many I have to talk to.

The latest chapter in this saga is when I got Geotzou to help me go to Snagglewood for an acolyte I was sure was there. After moving from dangerous snell to dangerous snell we finally found the acolyte who I was sure was the last one I had to find. Sadly it was not the case as he said the same thing from an acolyte I talked in the passes earlier in the week. I had hoped there was a second one in Snagglewood but wasn't able to get there before I fell and the healer (Caramel) couldn't raise me so Geotzou chained me out. I hope to go back there again but I don't know if there is a second acolyte there or where the one I need to find could possibly be.

Unlike fighters and healers who can discuss with each other about quests and trainers and abilities, mystics don't do that and sometimes there's an antagonistic feeling between mystics as they hoard information as dragons hoard gold. Therefore it's impossible for me to share the information I've collected with others to find out where I need to go.

I'm still working on uploading Eyes of Puddleby images to LiveJournal but have been running into difficulties. I believe I have a workaround so will be trying that and hope it'll work.

Winds of Dawn has been dormant for some time now. I rarely see anyone from the clan out of the library and usually only Therian and I (occasionally Delirium) are present for the weekly newbie open hunts. The few remaining active members are losing hope that there's any way to revive the clan outside of recruiting and there are few potential members at the time. Kiriel has no intention of leaving the library so we're without a leader as well.

Not that it really matters. The value of clans in Puddleby is surprisingly little and there's nothing important that you need to be in a clan to enjoy. There's the clan house but you can duplicate that with a house and just give everyone clan keys. I don't think you can modify the clan house or use it as a library so it's less useful than a house anyone can get. There is the Suncrystal which lets you talk to everyone in your clan at once which is great if there are people in your clan out of the library in the first place.

You might be wondering why I just don't take over the reins of leadership myself and help the Winds of Dawn emerge from its doldrums to become the clan it used to be. I don't think I could do it all alone and despite some other folks wanting the clan to continue I doubt any of them will really work on it. I know that sounds mean but I think it's the truth considering I was the one doing practically all of the Newbielympic contests (until this year) even though it's supposed to be a clan event. I could be wrong about this and part of me hopes that I am but from what I've seen so far, I don't think so.

On more positive news I'm still working on uploading the maps to LiveJournal and am still testing the community I made to see if it's better than the Google site. Hopefully I can unveil it relatively soon. I've already had one person express an interest in joining!

I've also changed my look. I was in the marsh a while back and bought the set of marsh yellow clothes. With my red hair and shoes I look like a tiny sun which suits me just fine.