Timing is everything

[meteordust]

RO.

I got way too little sleep last night because I was up late typing out my con report. Still, I set my alarm to wake me early so I could be up in time for today's siege. An hour earlier than the usual Thursday siege time, of course, since daylight saving time has finished in Australia.

On the other hand, no one thought to tell me that daylight saving time has now started in America.

So I logged on an hour late and didn't even realise it for a while. I wish I had been there earlier - I'm not entirely sure what difference my presence would have made, but I like to think it would have had some effect.

I went straight to the emperium room, which seemed to be in reasonable shape to me. I had trouble finding a party, which meant my regen would be slow, but that was no big deal, since the room was full of hunters who could share in the duties. There was no shortage of attackers either. I was kept busy, trapping and retrapping and shooting whoever entered.

Fifteen minutes in, Flames of Passion stormed the emperium room in force. This unfortunately coincided with the sudden disappearance of a slew of the traps we had laid, allowing our attackers easy access up the stairs. I was killed, and respawned in Prontera.

I was not surprised when the announcement came shortly after that Flames of Passion had conquered our castle.

I made my way back to the castle gates, looking to join up with the others for whatever the retake plan was. But I couldn't find anyone who knew what was going on, and it didn't help that I wasn't in a party. Over guild chat, I heard Gargust saying we couldn't take the castle back, the defenders were already set up, we needed Cyrus who wasn't here. It was then that I found out we only had forty minutes left, not an hour forty.

Hell with it. This hunter would die trying. Or at least die taking down a Flames of Passion wizard or two.

So I did what I thought I'd never do again - charge recklessly into a castle on my own. I didn't meet much resistance from other people, who were already engaged in combat or just trying to get to the emperium room themselves. But the guardians were another matter. My HP bar was a thin sliver of red by the time I reached the portal to the emperium room.

Keroberos was there, and a few others from Shin Ravenloft, as well as a friendly priestess who healed my injuries. Now at a bit of a loss, I waited there with them. I knew well enough that on the other side of the door lay probable instant death. But if enough of us were gathered, we could storm the place, and maybe with sheer weight of numbers someone might get through.

The wait was not long. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the announcement came: Shin Ravenloft had taken the castle again. I went inside. There had been Ravens inside the emperium room, and one of them had managed to break the emperium. I reset all my traps straight away, and the defence was on again. No rest for us this time either, until the final minute ticked past.

At the guild meeting afterwards, I learned about what had happened before I showed up. Apparently it was a similar situation to last time - boredom led to people leaving their posts, weakening an already shorthanded defence. I can understand better now the frustration of certain people at the way some others are behaving - I mean, WTF? What part of 'stay at your post' don't you understand? Didn't losing the castle four days ago teach you anything?

Sigh.

The mystery of the disappearing traps was explained too. Apparently, when a hunter leaves a room, the traps he or she has set automatically vanish after a few seconds. And that was what happened today. Not something I knew before, but definitely important.

Anyway, it seems as though there are some issues to be worked out with regards to the guild. The War of Emperium is putting stresses on people and relationships, and has been for some time. One of our allied guilds imploded because of it. It's probably time for us to take a look at where our priorities lie. I mean, I like the challenge of guild wars, but I like the guild - and the people in it - more.

Maybe it's true after all:

Fighting is fun. But war is hell.

Comments

[hopexd.livejournal.com]

Hey the stats means nothing(thinking in a real world situation XD), the castle's still in our hands by the end of the day - that's what matters most and what's real important. ^_^

[leenabeans.livejournal.com]

Actually. the constant goofing off is expensive. Every time the emp is broken, the economy of the castle goes down by 5. This past week, losing the castle twice cost30 mil in investments.

We have to hold on Sunday =|

[hopexd.livejournal.com]

Ouch. >_<
I'll be praying. *_*

[xfire.livejournal.com]

Thought I'd just mention it, but the 10th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition is about to fire up again from the sounds of things. In case you're still interested in IF, it might be worth checking out.

[meteordust.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up on this. The thought of putting together a piece of interactive fiction for the first time is kind of intimidating, but I guess there's plenty of time left to learn before the competition deadline...